Staff photo / Brian Yauger Champion freshman Jackie Fields and Springfield’s Brianne Carnahan battle for possession during Wednesday’s league tilt.

CHAMPION — An eight-minute span was all Champion needed.

After trading chances back and forth for 55 minutes, the Golden Flashes were able to break through, scoring three goals in an eight-minute in the second half to topple Springfield 3-0 in Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference action on Wednesday.

“We knew going into today it was going to be a battle,” Champion coach Emily Metheny said. “Every year it always is. Springfield’s a great team. We knew they were going to throw stuff at us we haven’t seen yet and they did. It took us a while to really break it down, but our seniors really led us. Mia Nadaud in the back, held down that center. She played multiple positions in that back, shutting them down. Taylor (Kuhn), Maylee (Nadaud) and Grayson Knoske really connecting, opening up and finding how to break down their defense and it really came together.

“This is a mature team because we threw formations at them that they’ve never done before and they really shined tonight and I’m really proud of what they did.”

Knoske broke things open midway through the second half, scoring her first of the night. Just five minutes later, she did it again, this time putting away a shot from Kuhn.

Not long after that, the two traded places, with Kuhn getting the goal off a Knoske assist.

All within a 10-minute span, the Golden Flashes overcame and few new obstacles and came out stronger in the end.

Metheny credits the team’s togetherness.

“They stay connected as a team, like I told them, it was a whole program thing like to come out here and see something you haven’t seen before,” she said. “It’s tied at half and to come out and break it down, I mean, that speaks a lot of the level of play there.”

The win marks three straight shutouts for the surging Flashes, who move to 5-0 on the season.

What’s helped this early-season run is the team’s attitude. From the top down, there’s a hunger within the program to never settle and to keep wanting more.

“Keeping our expectations and everything high and never being complacent with what we have,” Metheny said. “You’ve just got to keep building. You’re not guaranteed a win ever in soccer, so you’ve got to come out hard.”

For the Tigers, there was a momentary lapse in a matchup against one of the area’s top teams. That was all it took for Champion to take advantage.

“I think that we played hard for 80 minutes, but I think that we had about a seven minute stretch there that we just kind of lost mental capacity as to what was going on,” Springfield coach Justin Kosek said. “We got way out of position. I think just being aware of where the goalkeeper is with the goal. Defense we were out of position a little bit there, we didn’t have anybody come back to mark (Maylee Nadaud) in the middle there.

“I think they played as hard as they did for 80 minutes, but I think that we did too. I think it was just that it was that six-to-seven minute mental lapse that we had in that second half (that made the difference).”

The Tigers (2-2-1) have a week to reflect on the loss and hope to alleviate those mental mistakes going forward for their contest against Newton Falls.

“We need to go harder at practice, get more reps and hope that that fixes it,” Kosek said. “We’ve had a lot of gameplay so far against good teams, and it’s getting better every game. It just needs to be a full 80 minutes. It was 40 for a couple of games, and it was 50, then it was 60 and, and I think we played hard for 80 today, but it’s got to be physical and mental.”

Champion also has a week off before their next contest, a road tilt against Waterloo.