Northville girls soccer is a 2nd-half team but not happy about it
Once again, the Mustangs needed a strong second half to survive a KLAA-West match.
Northville girls soccer coach Jeannine Reddy is considering turning her halftime speech into her pregame speech. The Mustangs (6-0-1, 3-0-1) beat Salem 4-2 in Kensington Lakes Activities Association-West play on April 21, handing the Rocks (6-1-1, 3-1-0) their first league loss and moving into a first-place tie with Hartland atop the division standings. But it wasn’t as much of a runaway victory as the score might suggest.
Sure, Salem is a solid team and was worthy of the No. 1 spot before the match. But Northville also made the game harder for itself than it needed to be, something the Mustangs have done for most of the spring.
This marked the third league match where they didn’t score before halftime. They scored five goals in the second half during a 5-1 win against Plymouth on April 16, needed a second-half goal to force a 1-1 tie with Hartland on April 9 and, against the Rocks, scored three straight coming out of halftime to finally dictate play. “It’s weird — it’s just bizarre,” Reddy said.
“I don’t know what to do because I’m not going to yell at them before the game starts. ” In the NFL, teams take pride in being second-half teams, with halftime adjustments leading to wins. Reddy believes Northville’s victories would come easier if it didn’t rely on second-half surges.