Berkshire and visiting Chagrin Falls battled to a 3-3 draw on Sept. 11 in a pivotal Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division matchup. The two sides entered at 2-0 in the standings.
Berkshire and visiting Chagrin Falls battled to a 3-3 draw on Sept. 11 in a pivotal Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division matchup. The two sides entered at 2-0 in the standings.
While neither came away with a victory, both programs showed why they remain postseason contenders.
Berkshire reached the Elite Eight last season, while Chagrin Falls advanced to the Final Four, making this midseason clash a valuable test for both sides.
“It’s awesome to see (a game like this), especially in the middle of the season like this, because it’s where we can really learn and fine-tune things before the postseason,” Berkshire Head Coach Ian Patterson said. “It’s tough having teams like this in the conference, but it’s also great because it means so much more to win the conference.”
Marissa Karl put the Badgers on the board first in the 12th minute, but Chagrin Falls’ Felicity Fisher answered in the 21st to tie the game at 1-1.
Berkshire regained the lead late in the first half when Kelly McCandless scored in the 36th minute, giving the Badgers a 2-1 advantage at halftime.
Just seven minutes into the second half, Fisher struck again to level the score at 2-2.
McCandless scored her second goal of the night midway through the half, finishing off a perfect feed from Emma Rucinski to make it 3-2. But that lead lasted less than a minute, as Fisher completed her hat trick to secure the 3-3 final.
Both squads have been tested by demanding early-season schedules designed to prepare them for the postseason.
“(A tough schedule) helps out,” Patterson said. “You can see from Chagrin’s schedule that they started with a couple of really tough results, but then this week held a good Magnificat team to 2-0. That’s a great program.
“You can tell what the schedule does for a team like that, especially when you have the players that can hang in there and learn those things. It’s really beneficial to go out and schedule teams like Aurora, or West Branch, or have teams like Chagrin and Kirtland in the conference. It’s really important for us (to play these games).”
For Berkshire, Thursday’s draw kept the Badgers in the conference title hunt.
“We knew we needed to come out hard because we knew they still had to play Kirtland, who we already beat,” McCandless said. “We just wanted to put everything we had into this game since it was sort of like the conference championship game.”
Chagrin Falls, meanwhile, continues to develop its young roster.
“I knew we were younger coming in this year; we only have five seniors this year, so we’re younger overall,” Tigers Head Coach Joe Ciuni. “I knew we had some young talent, but they were inexperienced. And I knew it would take some time, and we’ve gone through some growing pains. But it’s all to set us up for the postseason. We’re not trying to have a 17-0 regular season, but that wouldn’t set us up for a postseason run, which is really our main goal.”
To the credit of the youth of his program, Fisher, a freshman, was one of the best players on the pitch against the Badgers.
“This is a good freshman class for me this year,” Ciuni said. “They’re going to be important players who make plays, and you saw that with Felicity. We needed every minute out of her tonight.”
Now at the midpoint of the season, Ciuni also said he sees steady progress.
“We have that potential for sure, and I love the way our defense has grown,” he said. “We’re very young on the defensive side and in the goal as well. The girls are doing great — they’re working super hard, and I like the progress they’re making.
“Still a lot of stuff to work on, but I also like how we’re able to create offense sometimes. I think we’re going to be pretty dynamic in that area of the field this year.”
