Girls soccer: Brynn Gawel’s late goal lifts Hinckley-Big Rock over Indian Creek

HINCKLEY – In the blink of an eye, Brynn Gawel went from a sigh to a smile.

The Hinckley-Big Rock sophomore, after scoring the go-ahead goal earlier in the game, had a shot hit the top of the crossbar with less than 12 minutes to play against Indian Creek.

But teammate Morgan King was there for the rebound, punching it home for an insurance goal in the Royals’ 5-3 win over the Timberwolves on Tuesday.

“It was a little sigh and then a giant smile,” Gawel said. “I’m just happy it went in.”

The Royals (7-1) were trailing the Timberwolves, 3-2, after IC (6-4-1) scored a pair of goals in the first five minutes of the second half.

It took until the 62nd minute for the Royals to tie the match back up with a hard shot by Ashleigh Wackerlin along the ground that found its way in for her second goal of the game.

Less than two minutes later, a corner kick by Josie Rader found its way in front of the net, and Gawel kicked it in from about 15 yards out in traffic.

“I just kind of ran in, saw the ball, and someone yelled shoot,” Gawel said. “I just put it in.”

The Timberwolves had a chance at the equalizer in the 68th minute, but Isabella Turner couldn’t beat Danielle Rankin to the ball and it was cleared away. A minute later King had the insurance goal for a 5-3 H-BR lead.

Down, 2-1, at halftime, Emma Turner started the scoring for the Timberwolves in the 45th minute, racing past the defense and sending the shot to the back of the net. Just 13 seconds later, Emma Wilson got her second goal of the game, looping a one-timer over Rankin for a 3-2 lead.

“I think we made some errors and they capitalized on it,” H-BR coach Melissa Jennings said. “That’s going to happen. They’re decent enough a team that if we make critical errors back-to-back-to-back they’re going to capitalize on it. We were able to fight back, and that’s what matters.”

There was a long stretch without scoring as H-BR dominated the ball, but Indian Creek had its chances, too. Emma Turner launched a shot right at Rankin, but she came up with the save one-on-one.

“I kind of felt like we had momentum for a while,” Indian Creek coach Scott McClure said. “We had a couple other opportunities where we could have maybe extended that lead a little bit. That’s the game of soccer. A couple balls bouncing off the posts that we don’t pick up running in and they were able to put two quick ones back in.”

Indian Creek scored the first goal of the game in the 16th minute when Isabella Turner did a cartwheel throw in and Wilson found the ball, sending it in for the 1-0 lead.

“She had a couple real nice shots,” McClure said of Wilson’s two-goal performance. “The one to start the second half was real nice. She was in the right place at the right time on the first goal of the game. She had a great game, I thought, and we’re hoping to continue that into Friday.”

A minute later the Royals tied it when King scored her first goal in front of the net. In the 22nd minute, Rader had a picture-perfect cross to Wackerlin, who then hit it home back in the other direction for the Royals’ first lead of the game.

“I think the fact the girls were down and fought their way back to win by two speaks volumes to how they are as a team and the hard work and the effort they’ve put into the season so far,” Jennings said. “We’re on a roll, we’ve been on a roll, and we need to just keep going.”