Sometimes a game comes down to a matter of inches... That was the case Monday night as the Dux soccer team hosted the Crusaders from Unity Christian. The Dux jumped on the Crusaders to start the match, generating two excellent scoring chances in the opening 5 minutes. Sam Hecht fired a shot from the top of the 18 yard box that clanged off the crossbar and out of bounds. Less than 3 minutes later, Kylee Winn's perfectly placed corner kick found Hecht. After chesting the ball to her foot, Hecht's shot hit the crossbar for the second time. Unity would recover a bit defensively, and were able to score two goals late in the first half, both off of turnovers in the Dux defensive end. 

"Defensively, we made two mistakes in the first half, and they capitalized on both. They made 3-4 mistakes defensively, and we had nothing to show for it. Honestly, that was the difference all game.If we knock those two early opportunities in, we force them to chase the game a little bit and we dictate the play in the midfield. We got extremely unlucky in the first 5 minutes, did everything right, and came up on the short end. That's how it goes sometimes."

The Dux came out strong in the second half, and again generated several quality scoring chances, including a penalty kick. UC's keeper made several good saves to keep the clean sheet, including saving the Dux penalty kick. UC got a third goal about midway through the second half, to extend the lead to 3-0. Samantha Hecht got the lone goal for the Dux with about 10-15 minutes to play. Leanne Wyrick applied pressure on a defender in the midfield, which resulted in a UC turnover. The result was a slotted ball into a Hecht as she split two defenders before firing a shot to the far post that finally beat the keeper, making it 1-3. Unity would add a fourth goal with about 6 minutes remaining. But the Dux continued to battle. Josie Bos' drive down the left side got her into the box, where she slotted a ball back to Wyrick on the far post. Unfortunately, Wyrick's redirection hit the far post.

"We did a lot of positive things tonight against a very good Unity Christian squad. We caught a couple of unlucky breaks offensively, and had some lapses in concentration and judgment at key times in the game. Tonight, those lapses hurt us because Unity is a very opportunistic team that finishes chances when they are presented. We have proven that we can play and compete at a high level, but we need to be better at finishing our opportunities and eliminating silly mistakes and mental lapses in judgment."

The Dux are 2-5-3 on the season, 1-5-2 in the OK Green.