TAWAS AREA - April 7, 2005 - Ogemaw Heights soccer coach Jeff Young wasn't sure how his young defense would respond to the Falcons opening their season against rival Tawas Area.

The Falcons answered his questions with a solid effort Thursday in blanking the Braves 2-0 in a contest that gave Ogemaw the (very) early lead in the North East Michigan Conference race.

"We definitely has some questions answered tonight," Young said. "Now we know we can play with the best."

The girl on the spot, goalkeeper Jessica Spicuzza, came through with 20 saves, the most difficult of which came in the final minutes as the Braves stepped up their offensive attack.

"She did a nice job," Young said. "She got better as the game went on. She knows she's not going in as a sub and won't be coming out if she gets scored on. Hopefully the confidence she gained continues through the next couple of games."

To be fair, the Braves (1-1, 0-1 NEMC) were missing five players due to a PRIDE conference in Cincinnati, but had had a chance to work out some early-season kinks in a 2-0 victory over Houghton Lake the previous night.

"It's early in the season, we were tired from the game the previous day and missing five players ..." said Tawas coach Ken Cook. "I wish we could do it over with better planning. I am looking forward to a good season and know we can recover."

"If you lose a couple of key people it can hurt," Young says. "But our kids stepped up and came to play, and that's exciting. Of course there still are some questions: are we this good? Or did they miss the kids who were gone that much? Either way, I'm happy with how we played."

It looked as though the teams would reach halftime locked in a scoreless tie as Spicuzza and Tawas keeper Jenna Kiblinger kept opposing attackers out of the goal. The Braves had the most dangerous scoring chance of the majority of the first half, when in the middle of a scramble defender Amanda Dale slid in to knock away a loose ball from just in front of the Falcons' right post.

The Falcons grabbed the lead and momentum when Sarah Killackey took a pass from Alexsis Roach, beat a Tawas defender and scored with 10 seconds left in the first half.

"We had been dominating, but we let our guard down," Cook said.

Ogemaw (1-0, 1-0 NEMC) quickly built on its lead, scoring on Killackey's penalty kick 90 seconds into the second half after a Tawas hand ball in the penalty box.

"We have room for improvement, there's no doubt," Young said. "But it's a good way to start the year."