<p>The way the Greenwood girls soccer team was peppering Greenwood Christian goalkeeper Ellie Bigelow on Thursday, one would have reasonably expected the visiting Woodmen to win by four or five goals.</p><p>But Greenwood couldn’t quite sustain that level of pressure all evening long — and when they did threaten, Bigelow was there to turn the shots away.</p><p>Well, all but one.</p><p>Tori Graber’s goal midway through the first half stood up as the only offense either side could muster as the Woodmen held on for a 1-0 victory in the annual crosstown matchup.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>"I don’t think we played great, but it’s the way it goes this time of year," Greenwood coach Joe Mushrush said. "Sometimes you just show up and you’re not playing clean, good soccer.</p><p>"The good news is that we still won. … It wasn’t always pretty, but we did what we had to do."</p><p>Greenwood (7-5) kept the ball in GCA’s end for the majority of the first half, building a 12-2 advantage in overall shots and putting nine attempts on goal. But Bigelow — who finished the night with 15 saves — got in the way of most of them, including what looked to be a surefire scoring opportunity off of a perfectly placed Olivia Brawley corner kick.</p><p>The only ball to elude Bigelow’s reach came with 19:35 left before halftime, when Graber ripped a pretty right-to-left liner from about 20 yards out that found the opposite corner of the nylon.</p><p>After that, the junior was impenetrable. Greenwood had a few good opportunities to tack on insurance goals in the second half, including solid point-blank shots by Emily Metzger and Abigail Davis, but Bigelow stepped up to get in front of both.</p><p>"Aggressive goalkeepers like that are not only effective, but a little intimidating for forwards and wings," Mushrush said of Bigelow’s effort.</p><p>Greenwood Christian (4-6) didn’t get many chances, finishing on the wrong end of a 22-3 shooting disparity, but it did have a late chance to salvage a draw on a long free kick with about a minute and a half remaining. The Cougars, though, could not turn that into a shot on goal.</p><p>Kiley Hankenhoff needed to make just two saves to preserve the shutout for the Woodmen, who are trying to put things together over the next two weeks so they can peak around sectional time.</p><p>"They’re coming together well," Mushrush said, "but there’s still a lot of work to do in the next couple of games and the next few weeks of practice. … I think they want to approach the last few games here with a strong mentality and try to finish the best we can."</p>
