PETOSKEY — Sometimes, you’re relieved to just come away with a tie and some kind of a positive result.
Other times, a draw can feel just the opposite.
Meeting rival Gaylord on the pitch at Northmen Stadium on Thursday night, the latter is how Petoskey felt after a couple halves of soccer and a blown lead in the final few minutes.
Leading 1-0 at the half and then 3-1 with 10 minutes to play, Gaylord made a late push to force a 3-3 draw, Petoskey’s second straight after a tie earlier in the week with Traverse City Central.
“While our tie at TCC on Tuesday felt like a win given the circumstances, this one feels like a loss after giving up the two late goals,” Petoskey coach Zach Jonker said. “Gaylord has a lot of pace up top and they are dangerous on the counterattack. To their credit, they made us pay the couple of times we momentarily switched off in the run of play and beat us to that first touch on the corner that tied it up.”
Petoskey moved to 2-0-2 overall on the season and 1-0-2 in the BNC, while Gaylord is also now 1-0-2 in the BNC and 3-5-2 overall, having played six more games than Petoskey. at this point.
While it was tough to take in the end, Jonker felt like there was a lot of good to take away from the matchup.
“There were a ton of positives for us and some good lessons learned,” said Jonker. “I was really pleased with how hard we competed and our long stretches of cohesive possession. We hit two posts and came close on a number of other occasions.”
The scoring was opened early in the first half when Annika Gandhi of Petoskey slotted a pass to teammate Anna Dundon streaking down the field and Dundon finished to make it a 1-0 advantage five minutes in.
That score stood until the half and up until Gaylord evened things up inside 10 minutes into the second half.
Petoskey then took the lead back on a score by Haidyn Wegmann, her second of the season, assisted by Dundon.
The score then became 3-1 when Kate Farley converted on a penalty kick for the Northmen with just 12 minutes left after a handball in the box.
The two-goal lead was short-lived for Petoskey, as Gaylord inched closer on a goalmouth scramble to score with six minutes left, then tied the game on a corner into the near post.
A shocked Petoskey couldn’t find a score in the remaining couple of minutes and settled for the tie.
“We definitely left one or two goals out there tonight that would have helped the cause,” said Jonker. “We need to grow from this experience and refocus quickly with TC West coming to town on Tuesday.”
The matchup against the Titans will come as a home game on Tuesday, May 2 at Northmen Stadium.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey plays to another draw vs. rival Gaylord