On a Thursday night at Great Lakes Cheese Stadium, both the girls and boys soccer teams for the Berkshire Badgers had successful efforts Sept. 14.
Match photos click here.
On a Thursday night at Great Lakes Cheese Stadium, both the girls and boys soccer teams for the Berkshire Badgers had successful efforts Sept. 14.
For the boys against VASJ, the game began at the point it had been previously stopped by inclement weather on Aug. 11 — with 1:09 left in the first half and the Vikings holding a 1-0 lead. In the restart, the teams battled on even terms until 29:33 was gone in the second half.
In a big scrum in front of Berkshire goalkeeper Jake Starr, several shots were blocked by Badger defenders, but a rebound shot deflected off a Viking player hit the twines for a 2-0 lead.
At that point, despite putting up 14 shots on Starr, the Badgers had played well against a front line with three long-legged, skillful VASJ speedsters, proving there is no giving up on the Berkshire roster.
This resilience often does not happen with a young team, which Berkshire is, with just two seniors and nine juniors on the 23 man roster. But this band of Badgers are a different breed.
“When we got this game started,” Berkshire Head Coach Oliver Mason said, “we may not have been at our best. We had some sluggish moments, and VASJ always has a solid program, so their reputation came before them. We didn’t get out on attacks with our offense then, or stick with our game plan.
“Today we were much better with that. Their (VASJ) forwards are fantastic players, their whole team is quick and very skilled, and it shows. Today we did a much better job of getting the ball moving and we did a better job setting up in the corners for better shots.”
The Badgers’ improvements became crystal clear at the 32:14 mark of the second half as Berkshire pushed the ball hard from midfield down the right sideline, with Ryan Kessenger speeding away in a high-quality impersonation of a speeding bullet. He found Billy Mooney with a perfectly placed pass between two defenders going down the middle of the field, and Mooney deposited the ball into the left corner to cut the deficit in half.
Several outstanding defensive plays from both teams kept the score at 2-1 until the 37:44 mark, when Trent Hornak forced his way between a pair of defenders about 25 yards away from the goal. Going for the ball, the Vikings missed and took out Hornak’s ankles, setting him up for a penalty kick with the game on the line.
As he moved in one direction, Hornak drilled the ball in for a clear goal for the final scoring, and the Badgers kept their record in good standing at 4-4-2 on the season.
In the nightcap of the evening, the Badger girls, entertaining CVC rival Cuyahoga Heights, also started strong under Head Coach Ian Patterson against a ready band of Red Wolves.
As temperatures dropped on this clear night, the field got to be something the Badgers had not yet experienced this year. Slick conditions at times had no effect on them. The Red Wolves also looked ready for it, but Berkshire players would have none of that.
Then, with 29:17 gone, senior forward Evania McCandless got to a loose ball in her offensive zone on a breakaway and deposited it into the net for a 1-0 lead.
A minute and a half later, a free kick from sophomore Kelly McCandless found Evania going full speed again, and she sent the ball to the back of the goal for a 2-0 lead.
Evania tallied her third score of the night with 23:50 gone in the second half, as she fired a shot after getting another perfect pass from Alyssa Lawson.
Then, at the 24:47 mark of the second half, Lawson repeated her effort, this time finding Kelly for a shot to the right side of the net.
To that point, the Badger defense stopped everything the Red Wolves had in their arsenal. Reece Frank was knocked down on a break-away try with just over five minutes left in the game and sent the penalty shot by Sarah Wendl to break up the shutout. But Heights could not overcome a smothering defensive effort of the Badgers, now 5-2-1.
“This was a good win for us,” Patterson said. “We might have been a little sluggish today compared to our recent game at Chardon, but we knew they had a good team, and our girls were really good tonight at staying in front of their forwards, especially, to slow them down.”
Asked about the possible effects of the cold weather, Evania really wasn’t sure, but said her team did what it needed to do.
“This was our first cold-weather game of the year,” said the Cedarville University recruit for next year. “It was a little difficult at first, but once we figured out their style of play, we were able to also mix it up in our style and get some things done.”
Indeed, there was nothing cold about how both Berkshire teams played.
