By Cort Reynolds
SPENCERVILLE--The visiting Ada High School girls soccer team lost 3-1 to Spencerville in a Northwest Conference match Monday evening, October 3.
The Bulldog girls fell to 5-8 overall and 0-4 in the NWC with the defeat.
The Lady Bearcats improved to 2-7-3 overall and 1-3-1 in the NWC with their first league win.
The game was scoreless for the first 25 minutes, with Ada controlling the ball for much of the first 15 minutes.
Spencerville scored the first goal, but Bulldog ace Ella Marshall tied it for Ada 1-1 with a record-setting score.
Ada played on its heels for the last 10 minutes of the half, and the Bearcats netted a goal shortly before intermission to take a 2-1 lead into the break.
The hosts then added one second-half insurance goal to seal the victory.
"We played hard but once again dug a hole we couldn't battle out of," said Ada first-year head coach Doug Dewese. "Once Spencerville had the lead they bunkered down their defense with 6-7 girls in the center, which killed most of our attacks.
"We are not built to beat teams that way with our offense, so despite a good team effort, we just couldn't find the back of the net," explained Dewese.
Ada sophomore standout Marshall scored off an Olivia Burkhart assist to set a new program single-season goal record with 15.
Marshall broke the previous mark of 14 goals in a season set by Neisha Ulrey in 2004.
Burkhart extended her own Ada season assist mark to 13 with the helper.
The Ada girls out-shot the Bearcats, 16-9.
"We will take away the positive of adding to Olivia Burkhart's season assist record and Ella Marshall's season goal record, and move on to the next game," Dewese added.
The Bulldogs (0-4 NCOSA) continue on their four-game road swing when they travel to Van Buren (9-4-1, 3-1 NCOSA) Thursday, Oct. 6.
Ada then visits Delphos Jefferson (6-6-1, 2-2 NWC) Oct. 10. The road run concludes at Miller City (9-2-1) Oct. 13.
