Although a year had passed, not much changed in the OHSAA sectional title game for the West Geauga Wolverines girls soccer team.
Match photos click here.
Although a year had passed, not much changed in the OHSAA sectional title game for the West Geauga Wolverines girls soccer team.
Last year, en route to a deep playoff run, the Wolverines defeated Crestwood 6-0 for the sectional championship. This year, the Wolverines defeated a strong Berkshire Badgers team, which was on a 14-game winning streak, by a score of 7-3.
Like last year’s sectional title game, the Wolverines started strongly, led by NCAA Division I Penn State commit Frankee Flesher. Flesher scored two goals, and Holly Jeunnette and Megan McGinnis each added one, to give their team a commanding 4-0 lead going into halftime.
“Tonight was a perfect example of our preparation all season long,” West Geauga Head Coach Kori Jesenovec said. “A lot of that (scoring) was just preparation. I think we played very together as a team. We had a lot of great combination plays and, I mean, really, we had some great corners that we took.
“Just as a team, we were together. We were just putting a lot of pressure on their back line. We knew that was something that we could exploit them with, just being able to put pressure on them, and so I think the girls executed the plan extremely well and they did a fantastic job tonight. They played West G soccer.”
Senior Holly Jeunnette added, “It was a really tough game. Both teams fought super hard; we just ended up with the win. We had a lot of drive tonight coming in. Especially us seniors, there’s 13 of us, we didn’t want our season to end, so we just pushed through it.”
Flesher got her Wolverines onto the scoreboard early with a goal three minutes into the game.
“I received a through-ball and kind of just saw the goalie coming out and just placed it,” she recalled.
Shortly after, the Wolverines scored again on a goal by McGinnis a little more than nine minutes in.
“My first goal was the header off the corner, which we have been working for all season,” said McGinnis. “It has really been working really well for us. Holly has great corners, and I try just to get on the end of it and do whatever I can to head it towards the goal.”
Flesher scored again in the 27th minute. Then, about a minute later, Jeunnette scored the Wolverines’ fourth goal of the half to put the Wolverines up 4-0.
“Mine was just a cross-through,” said Jeunnette. “It was phenomenal. Natalie got a little tip on it. She was really in the right spot at the right time, and I just tried to place it in the goal and not hit it over.”
The Wolverines scored three more times in the second half. Two of those were by McGinnis, the equivalent of her three-goal hat trick in last year’s sectional title game.
In addition, Flesher scored in the second half to also record a hat trick performance for the Wolverines.
To Berkshire’s credit, they kept fighting hard throughout the second half and matched the Wolverines’ three second-half goals with three of their own.
Berkshire’s goals were scored by Alyssa Lawson, with two, and Brooke Ruchalski.
The Badgers completed a great 16-2 season. They were led offensively by Lawson, Ruchalski, Evania McCandless, Kelly McCandless, Mary Lee, Tara Barickoski, Jordyn Wichert and Madison Durosko.
Both Evania McCandless and Ruchalski amassed 100 points for their career this season.
Berkshire’s defense also shined this season, led in net by junior Sarah Wendl.
For the season, the Badgers tallied 11 shutouts and three games when they only gave up one goal.
The Wolverines now advance to the district finals, where took on the Salem Quakers Oct. 24 in a game finished after deadline.
