EHS Finishes With Two Ties, One Defeat in Tourney

MATTOON -- Effingham opened with a 2-2 tie against host Mattoon Friday then came back to tie Arthur-Lovington 2-2 and fell to Salem 2-1 in Saturday play in the Mattoon Soccer Invitational.

 The Hearts and Arthur-Lovington played to a tie. Arthur's Anthony Hettinger started the scoring at 19:28. Effingham's Caleb Gadberry then tied the score with a goal and an assist by Kohdai Nishida at 12:29.

In the second half, the Hearts moved ahead 2-1 on another goal by Gadberry and an assist from Nishida at 17:34. But Arthur-Lovington's Hettinger came back to tie the score on a goal at 3:47.

EHS had eight shots on goal and Dalton Steele had three keeper saves. Arthur-Lovington had five shots on goal and Matthew Robinson had five keeper saves.

In the game against Salem, Effingham scored first on a goal by Nishida at 1:30 in the first half. But the Wildcats came back in the second half with two goals to win. Zach Schilling scored at 14:40 and Jonah Richard at 1:36.

EHS had 11 shots on goal and Steele had one keeper save. Salem had three shots on goal and Jacob Maxey had nine keeper saves.

EHS is now 11-3-3 on the season.

Mattoon won the tourney by downing Salem 3-1 in the championship match. The Green Wave had beaten Arthur-Lovington 7-0 to reach the title contest.