TURBOTVILLE — For a large majority of the first half, Warrior Run’s defense was peppered with pressure by Hughesville in a crucial HAC-II girls soccer matchup on Tuesday night in Turbotville. But the Defender defense held strong, getting to the half scoreless.

Then, they flipped the script.

Warrior Run played a sensational final 40 minutes and beat Hughesville, 2-0, to improve to 10-1-1.

“I think taking down a team like Hughesville and getting this win was really big for my girls. Going into Southern Columbia, and Central Columbia, they needed to prove (to themselves) that they could beat a substantial team,” Warrior Run coach Rob Ryder said.

In two starkly different halves, the Defenders showed that they’re a complete team that can win a match in a variety of ways. The Spartans were constantly in possession in the attacking third, but only had one clear-cut chance in the half. That was a cross by Sierra DeWire that found Haley Stevens in the penalty area. Stevens wasn’t able to put it on frame on what may have been Hughesville’s best chance of the match, as Warrior Run did a great job of limiting clear-cut chances.

“Our defense just does an excellent job of seeing long balls and through balls and just picking them off,” Ryder said. “And (goalkeeper) Chloe Burden, with the ball being comfortable at her feet, does such a great job distributing the ball from pass-backs from her teammates and things like that. That whole unit just works really well together, and just compliments the midfield and forwards really well.”

Not being able to cash in with a goal in the first half was pretty frustrating for Hughesville.

“Give credit to their (defense). They got themselves out of trouble. We just couldn’t sneak anything through. We were trying to play some over the top balls. That’s not our game. Usually we like trying to find the slots. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen,” Hughesville Head Coach Cody Hack said.

Hughesville had a header from Ava Snyder go just over the bar off of a corner kick thirteen minutes into the second-half. After that, it was all Defenders. With 22:40 remaining in the match, Nat Hall played a ball into the box from the left sideline some 45 yards from goal.

The ball bounced over the head of Hughesville goalkeeper Jasmine Caputo, and Reagan Brouse won a race to the back post, tapping the bounding ball in to give Warrior Run a huge 1-0 lead.

“I was just thinking, ‘just gotta crash the goal’. It was a great cross from Nat. She did a really good job getting it up there. You just gotta finish it off,” Brouse, a freshman, said.

Then with 10:47 remaining, Defender Maura Woland got to a loose ball at midfield, and sent a one-time perfectly-weighted through-ball through the Hughesville defense. Scarlett Dunkleberger ran on to it, saw that Caputo had come well off of her line, and adeptly poked it around Caputo to make it 2-0.

“As a striker, oftentimes, when you get those through balls, you have to think quick, and it’s really hard to think quick in those situations. So, when that through ball was set, all I could think was to go for the goal, because having that second goal is all we needed to get in a comfortable position as a team,” Dunkleberger said. “I think getting that through ball was just the perfect play.”

Warrior Run continued to play great defense to finish off the clean sheet and get their 10th win in 12 tries this year.

Warrior Run 2 Hughesville 0

WR–Reagan Brouse (Nat Hall), 58:20. WR–Scarlett Dunkleberger (Maura Woland), 69:13.

Shots: WR 13, H 4. Saves: WR 4 (Chloe Burden), H 11 (Jasmine Caputo).