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Undefeated Wolverines head to soccer regional
(by Steve Novak - November 03, 2010)
Undefeated Wolverines head to soccer regional
By STEVE NOVAK
The West Geauga girls' soccer team has gone through 20 games without a loss, and its most recent victory earned it in a spot in the Division I regional playoff.
In a district final last Saturday, the Lady Wolverines (18-0-2) battled Mentor to a 1-1 tie through regulation time. In a shootout to determine a winner, Mentor netted four of its five shots. The Wolverines found the back of the net on their fifth shoty to grab the district title.
"In the last couple of weeks, we've been working on shootout kicks like that," West Geauga coach Bill Bryan said. "We worked on it almost every practice. It paid off.
"The (Mentor) game just showed their tenacity," Bryan said. "It showed that they were going to find a way to win."
West Geauga scored first in the game on a corner kick. Kori Chapic took possession of an inbounds pass and headed the ball into the net from about eight yards out less than 20 minutes into the game. Mentor responded with a goal about 10 minutes later in the first half on on a penalty kick.
That was the end of the scoring through regulation time, as the defense on both teams kept close guard on their nets. An overtime period still produced no goals, and the game went into a five-shot shootout.
Both Mentor and West Geauga made their first four shots in the shootout. It came down to the fifth try, and Mentor's shot failed on the fifth try. This left things up to the Wolverines' Amy Reinhard, and she responded with winning goal.
The first four shootout goals for West Geauga were scored by Maggie Kilfoyle, Caitlin Curtis, Haley Calkins and Chapic.
After Mentor's attempt at its fifth goal was unsuccessful, West Geauga's Reinhard hit the back of the net with her kick and gave her team a ticket to the regional this week.
"It was a great kick," said Chapic, regarding Reinhard's winning goal. "It was like, we can finally breathe. There was so much stress. We just wanted it so bad."
Chagrin Falls advances
Another team that is moving on to regional competition is the Chagrin Falls girls' soccer team. In a Division II district final game last Thursday, the Tigers defeated Orange, 1-0.
The goal was scored on a corner kick. The inbounds pass was delivered by Chagrin's Ashlyn Flaherty. Katie Klespies collected the inbounds pass and headed the ball toward the net.
However, then the ball deflected off an Orange defender and Rachel Zaluski got the rebound and kicked in the goal. It was scored with less than 10 minutes left in the first half. Coach Pam Malone said Zaluski got credit for the lone goal.
"In a tournament game, you only get so many opportunities," Malone said. "We rely on set plays, and I think it came down to us capitalizing on a corner kick."
At the net, Morgan Liber had four saves for Chagrin. Orange goalkeeper Rebecca Tenney saved seven shots.
Chagrin advanced to the district final with postseason wins over Canton South, Lake Center and Salem. The Tigers' season record is 9-10-3.
Orange advanced to the finals with postseason wins over Streetsboro, LaBrae and Canton Central Catholic. The Lions ended with a record of 13-4-3.
Lions' coach Keith Gisser said the 13 wins was a school record.
Solon boys ousted
The Solon boys' soccer team's playoff run ended in a district final on a cold and rainy night last Thursday at Cleveland St. Ignatius. Finishing as district runner-up is the deepest a Comets' boys' soccer team has advanced in the Division I playoffs since 2006.
The Comets advanced to the finale after notching two shutout wins against Parma Heights Valley Forge (1-0) and Parma Normandy (3-0) in a sectional final and district semifinal, respectively.
The team benefited from senior leadership all season, with eight graduating seniors on the team: co-captains Andrew Rutsky and Terry Tsivitse, midfielders Greg Kachele and Jack Krienen, goalkeeper Scott Levy, defender Sean Nagelski, and forward Paul Ghuman.
The Comets ended the season 10-8-1. Nine of the 10 wins were shutouts.
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