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Soccer: Iron Mountain edges Kingsford, 1-0

Kingsford's Peyton Johnson (left) and Iron Mountain's Taylor Paul (3) battle for the ball in Monday's match at Commemorative Field. (Burt Angeli/The Daily News)

KINGSFORD — Kingsford nearly had Iron Mountain’s Riley Poupore blanked for the season Monday.

But that changed in the final minutes as the sophomore hammered home a goal to lift the Mountaineers past the Flivvers 1-0 in a UP Soccer Conference girls match at Commemorative Field.

Senior Ashlee Klarich delivered a cross to the determined Poupore from about 25 yards out.

“Riley settled it once and hit it right from the middle,” said Mountaineers coach Zack Frorenza. “She made a good shot and put it on net. We always tell them to put it on net because you never know what will happen.”

The scoreboard read 2:05 left in the second half when Poupore found the net. Kingsford had checked Poupore and Iron Mountain 1-0 in a match last week.

“She got loose,” said Flivvers coach Jon Lorenzoni. “Our intent was to smother her and we did a good job of that for 148 minutes, and then that happened.”

Although keepers Lauren Lesky of the Mountaineers and Abi Person of the Flivvers had few stressful moments, both coaches could see solid play.

“Much like the first one (with Kingsford), we had a lot of the possessions,” Frorenza said. “We showed a lot of skill, played well as a team and did a lot of good things.

“It was a struggle to score again but luckily Riley got one in there so we were not playing when the sprinklers came on.”

With a rare 7 p.m. start time, Commemorative Field’s automatic sprinkler system came on moments after the match ended.

“Two good teams playing,” Lorenzoni said. “We knew it was going to be a battle. They just made a play and that was the difference in the game. I thought we were starting to get some momentum in the second half. We were actually stringing some passes together and putting some pressure on them.”

Neither coach made major adjustments from last week’s battle. The Mountaineers did move a couple players in the hopes of igniting the offense.

“We played a really good game,” Frorenza said. “We really didn’t have to change much other than try to score goals. So we moved a few people around a little bit to see if this person playing up higher might have better luck scoring. We didn’t want to change anything big.”

The Mountaineers (4-1, 2-1) host Three Lakes, Wis., in a non-conference match tonight. The Flivvers (6-1-1, 2-1-1) travel to Marquette on Wednesday in a likely must-win situation.

“I’m still happy with where we are right now but we have another tough one coming up,” Lorenzoni said. “That’s going to be a tough place to play. We just have to regroup and have a good practice Tuesday. The conference is still up for grabs.”

Iron Mountain 0 1 — 1

Kingsford 0 0 — 0

First Half

No scoring.

Second Half

IM — Riley Poupore (Ashlee Klarich), 2:05

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