Cheboygan girls soccer battles back in second half, but falls short at home to Tawas

CHEBOYGAN – The Cheboygan girls soccer team was dominant all season up until Monday night.

Unfortunately for the Chiefs, they finally met their match in the Tawas Braves, who used a quality display to hand Cheboygan their first loss of the season by capturing a narrow 2-1 victory in Cheboygan.

With the Chiefs (5-1-1, 5-1-1 Northern Michigan Soccer League) finally suffering defeat, here’s some takeaways from Monday’s showdown with the Braves.

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Flat first half costly

The second half was strong from the Chiefs, who created several chances and converted one when sophomore Jaelyn Wheelock delivered a powerful shot to slice Cheboygan’s deficit to 2-1 with less than 30 minutes remaining.

As solid as the final 40 minutes were for the Chiefs, a flat first half didn’t do them any favors against the Braves, who went in front when Anna Herbolsheimer came up with a brilliant shot from the right side just under four minutes into the game. The goal came on a dangerous counterattack, something Tawas was able to do for much of the half. The Braves hit the Chiefs once more when Kierstin Muckenthaler made it a Tawas advantage with a goal just 14 seconds before halftime.

While the Chiefs fell short, Cheboygan coach Tom Markham praised his team for a much better second-half display. At the same time, he was disappointed with the sluggish opening period.

“We weren’t hurting for opportunities to tie it up,” Markham said. “We out possessed, we outshot them, but we’ve just got to deliver. We can’t go down 2-0 before we decide that we’re going to play tough. The second half was much better. Kudos to the girls. They showed a great deal of effort and a great deal of determination but hats off to Tawas. They played us tough, the caught us on the (counterattack) two times, which we’ve got to defend better.”

Missing Bent

What the Chiefs were missing dearly on Monday was senior Taylor Bent, a midfield powerhouse who was off to a stellar start in her final season with the program. But just last week, Bent suffered an injury in a game against Big Rapids Crossroads and will be out for a while.

When Bent’s on the field, Cheboygan looks more dangerous as a unit. When she’s not, it’s more of a challenge for the Chiefs, who struggled in the early stages against Tawas.

“We’re banged up, we’ve got other kids that are stretching, and that’s the thing that I remind everybody is that this is a young team,” Markham said. “We’ve got freshmen, we’ve got sophomores that are really stretching and really trying to fill the gaps, but Taylor’s (Bent) a big stabilizer in the midfielder that we’re missing. We’re hoping that she’ll get healthy and get back with it us.”

Big week ahead

Following Tuesday’s away contest at Shepherd, the Chiefs will face another tough foe when Ogemaw Heights comes to town for a 5 p.m. clash on Friday.

Meanwhile, Tawas (5-1-0) remained unbeaten on the season with the pivotal league road win.

Contact sports editor Jared Greenleaf at jgreenleaf@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @sportsCDT

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Cheboygan girls soccer team falls to Tawas, suffers first loss of season