North Kingstown midfielder Nicole Perez, left, keeps the ball away from South Kingstown defender Lindsey Wallace. Photo by Caitlin Downing On paper, the North Kingstown High School girls’ soccer game against South Kingstown last Tuesday night looked like it would be decided before the game ever began.

The South Kingstown Rebels, who finished as the runner-up in last year’s state finals, were playing on their home turf with 12 returning seniors on their roster.

The Skippers, on the other hand, returned just three seniors and had a losing record last year.

Fortunately for North Kingstown, the game was not contested on paper.

“Our girls were in awe of the South team before the game started,” Dave Murphy, the Skippers’ head coach, said. “I told them that once 6 o’clock hit, they had to go out there and make them earn the respect they were giving them.”

For 79 minutes and 40 seconds, the Skippers did just that. Rebels’ twin powerhouses, Amanda and Jessica Graham, were frustrated over and over again by the Skippers’ defense.

“We knew what South’s game plan was with Amanda Graham. We knew what they were going to try to have her do and where she was going to try to make her plays from,” Murphy said. “I just told our defenders that we needed to go out and make her play our game, where we wanted her to play and that is what they did.”

The action started early when, just over three minutes into the game, Amanda Graham took her first shot, which sailed over the Skippers’ goal. North defender Eliza Drew saved another Graham shot from making it on the scoreboard just two minutes later. Skippers’ goalie Jonna Miguel then jumped on a South corner kick to finally give North some breathing room and a chance to take the ball into Rebel territory.

The first scoring chance for the Skippers came on back-to-back corner kicks, but North could not find any clear air in front of the goal and came up blank. Midway through the first half, Miguel averted danger again for the Skippers by getting one hand on a Jessica Graham to Amanda Graham corner kick just in time to save the goal.

With 13 minutes remaining in the half, islander Nicole Perez thwarted several South defenders for a run at the goal, but was tripped up just shy of the shot.

“Nicole is working really hard. She is not used to playing where we are asking her to, but she has done a nice job of adjusting. She is very fast and she trains very hard,” Murphy said.

The Rebels did not let up for the rest of the half, nearly burying a shot with just 20 seconds remaining on the clock, but North’s defense remained strong and the teams went into halftime tied 0-0.

“I told the girls at halftime that we couldn’t play defense the entire game and expect something to happen,” Murphy said. “They needed to go out and make the most of whatever scoring opportunities they had.”

The Skippers did rack up more offensive time in the second half, taking several close shots on goal, but they could not make one stick. While there were valiant goal scoring efforts on both sides, with less than a minute remaining in the game, it appeared the game would end in a scoreless tie. A divot in the field changed that in less than two seconds.

An off-balance shot by South forward Chelsea Gates took a strange bounce after hitting the divot and entered the goal just out of reach of Miguel, stunning the Skippers with only 20 seconds remaining and giving South the 1-0 victory.

Murphy said that while the game ended up in the loss column, he saw it as a positive sign.

“It was a good result for us. Winning would have been a better result, but they could have easily beat us three or four to zero and that didn’t happen. It makes a huge difference.”

A difference, he said, that will pay dividends in the near future.

“I think the South Kingstown game will really help the girls down the road,” Murphy said. “It will make them mentally and physically tougher when we have to play LaSalle and South again.”

The Skippers will travel to Scituate today, Sept. 17, at 4 p.m. and will face Mt. Hope at home at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 21.