Tipp earns comeback win on Senior Night

After falling behind twice on Saturday night against Northwestern, the Tippecanoe girls soccer team took their first lead of the game with just over five minutes left and held on for a 3-2 non-conference win against the Warriors on Senior Night at the Tipp City Park.

Tipp now hosts Butler tonight, with the MVL title on the line. The Red Devils must win to share the league with Butler and Sidney.

“Definitely not our sharpest night with 19 shots in the first half and not able to convert any of those,” Tipp coach Brent Palmer said after the game. “We got woken up after conceding a goal early in the second half, and I was happy with the resilience we had. We capitalized on our chances better in the second half.”

Tipp came out putting tremendous pressure on the Warriors' defense with several close shots in the opening two minutes of the game but was unable to convert. Mady Turner, Biz Stallard, and Maddie Hook all had solid attempts to score in the first ten minutes, but the keeper turned away all of their shots.

Julia Burgbacher nearly scored with just under 20 minutes left in the game, but the Warriors' goalie tipped her attempt away at the last second.

As the game went into the half scores, it was Northwestern who answered first just four minutes into the second half.

After Tipp keeper Rachel Vaughn had a great sliding stop of a scoring attempt, the ricochet was knocked in to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Turner responded at 29:21 when she took a pass from Kendall Davis to score and tie the game for the Red Devils.

With just over 13 minutes left, Northwestern took a 2-1 lead before things got interesting. The Red Devils scored with 9:15 left, but a controversial offsides call nullified the goal. Less than a minute later, Brooke Shafer came through. After her goal was disallowed, she scored again, with Burgbacher picking up the big assist, tying the game at 2-2 with 8:06 left.

After another Tipp goal was called back, the freshman Kenzie Curry found the back of the net with 5:37 left, and Shafer picked up the assist for Tipp.

“Sometimes you are on the good end of those calls, sometimes you are not,” Palmer said. “Our job is to stay focused and control what we can control, and we did a good job with that.”

“For Curry, it was the right time in the right spot, and we are happy with that finish.”

Tipp now hosts Butler Wednesday night in their final regular season game, and the league title is on the line.