The Batavia Bulldogs narrowly escaped the Wildcats soccer team 2-1 on Saturday, April 13.

Kickoff took place at 2:08 p.m. on Memorial Field; the Batavia Bulldogs started with the ball. Although Batavia had considerable amount of time in which they had possession with the ball, that would not stop the Wildcats’ freshman midfielder, Kaylee Kreitzer from getting the West Chicago offense going early with a goal in just four minutes into the period.

The remainder of the first half would be rather quiet, but was a very physical game.

The half-time buzzer sounded with the score 1-0, and the Wildcats on top.

“We felt good, we went over our game in the half and how we would keep our lead. We were confident about our game in that first half,” Kreitzer said.

The second half was relatively dry to start. The Wildcats came back strong, and there was more even ball possession between both teams. West Chicago and Batavia traded shots on goal, and it was a dogfight the whole half.

The Wildcats got a scoring chance and a break away to the net and put the ball in. Unfortunately, the Wildcats would not be able to keep that goal due to being offsides. Nonetheless, the Wildcats led for the majority of the game, until Batavia took an offensive surge. With 11:45 left in the match, Batavia’s Alyssa Brookbank, a junior, scored, evening the score at 1-1 with a little over 10 minutes left in the game.

The offense for Batavia did not slow down, and the team pulled ahead of West Chicago 2-1 with a goal from junior Cloey Sattler with just 6:03 left in the half. Despite the Wildcats’ best efforts, they could not tie up the game.

The match ended in a score of 2-1 in favor of the Batavia Bulldogs.