A lot of youth got involved last season in the West Geauga women’s soccer program under first-year coach Cassidy Lewis, and a 7-10-2 season of growth has gotten the Wolverines off to a good beginning this year.
A lot of youth got involved last season in the West Geauga women’s soccer program under first-year coach Cassidy Lewis, and a 7-10-2 season of growth has gotten the Wolverines off to a good beginning this year.
West G improved to 2-0 on this young season Aug. 20 with a resounding 9-0 triumph over the Geneva Eagles at Howell Field, sparked by a four-goal effort from junior forward Adison Cook.
She didn’t do it alone, either.
“We worked hard in the off-season to be ready for this year,” Cook said. “Often times we were out here playing two or three times a week. Against NDCL, we played fairly well but also had some moments in the second half that we kind of backed down a little in. So today, knowing Geneva is usually pretty solid, we pushed ourselves more in the second half after a close first half to pull away. It felt pretty good to play hard all the way.”
Two goals from Cook and one from Faellynn Beckrest gave the Wolverines a 3-0 halftime lead in a game started early due to the Eagles (1-1) not fielding a junior varsity team.
Team speed was the difference in this contest, especially in the second half.
Geneva, under first-year coach James Restad, applied pressure all over the field and played well, but the overall edge in team speed, especially in the second half, proved to be too much for them.
Beside the four goals from Cook, Ava Borz and Beckrest each score twice, and late in the game, Rachel Mason broke free on a breakaway up the middle to impersonate the Road Runner for an unassisted goal.
Beckrest scored off of a corner kick from Amelia Zaffiro for the final tally of the game.
“Our whole idea, especially in the second half, was to keep applying as much pressure as we could,” Coach Lewis said. “We want to improve on our record from last year, so we haven’t scheduled as many D1 teams as we did last year. We play several late in the season, but we have such a strong freshman, sophomore and junior representation this season, we want to keep pushing the entire game every time we play.
“We stayed focused much better today than we did with NDCL, too. We kind of conceded a few things with them once we got a lead, but today we were really locked in the whole way, and our team speed came through very well for us.”
Breakaway opportunities were regular for the Wolverines against a young Geneva team, but the Eagles have a solid youth program to provide experience. They got good position defensively most of the time. When they didn’t, though, and the speedy players in West Geauga uniforms got free, their opponents made the plays to win the game.
Geneva only got off a trio of shots on keeper Michaela Platt, one of three West G seniors. Two saves got the ball back under control of the Wolverine offense in a hurry, and with Cook having a career day for any player, West Geauga was now set up for a tough matchup against Willoughby South.
