Staff photo / Preston Byers Poland’s Kinsey Lisko dribbles the ball during the first half of the Bulldogs’ 5-3 home win against Niles on Wednesday.

POLAND — For the first time in the 2024 season, the Poland girls soccer team surrendered a goal.

Luckily, the objective isn’t to pitch a shutout. As Bulldogs head coach Neil Huda said following the match, it’s just to score at least one more than the other team.

The Bulldogs accomplished that task Wednesday evening, keeping their record unblemished and handing Niles its first loss of the year in a 5-3 home victory.

“We did what we needed to do,” Huda said following the win.

Entering Wednesday’s Northeast-8 match, Poland had thoroughly dominated its opponents, winning each match by at least four goals and outscoring them by a combined tally of 34-0.

It appeared early on Wednesday that Poland would continue to roll, as the Bulldogs uncharacteristically took little time to jump out ahead on the scoreboard.

“We’ve had a hard time scoring in the first half [this season], so it was important today to score in that first half, especially against Niles,” Huda said.

Less than three minutes into Wednesday’s match, senior Sophia Generalovich took a free kick about 30 yards from Niles’ goal. Generalovich connected well, driving the ball over Dragons goalkeeper Gianna Wagner’s hands and into the back of the net.

Nearly 10 minutes later, Generalovich took another free kick, this time from about 40 yards away. Despite several players in its path, the ball seemed to miss everyone and trickled into the net, giving Poland a 2-0 advantage.

Unsurprisingly, Huda was full of praise for Generalovich, who scored three goals on the evening.

“She’s wonderful,” Huda said. “I mean, her shots are crazy. That shot she made over here on the corner might have been one of the best shots I’ve ever seen. She just turned on it and shot.”

A blowout was not meant to be, though.

Fifteen minutes into the match, Niles star Kherington Stanford put a goal past Poland goalkeeper Lily McDonald, the first time that has happened this season.

More than six minutes later, Cali Rodgers found the net too, converting off of a free kick about 40 yards away from the goal to tie the match up at two apiece.

Huda attributed the allowed goals to miscommunication between the defenders and goalkeeper.

“We made some mistakes in the back today,” Huda said. “We’re going to try to fix it. I thought the defense wasn’t on the same page back there, and they always have to be.”

Niles could not take the tie into halftime, however, as a Poland corner kick ultimately resulted in an apparent own goal.

After the break, the Bulldogs managed to nearly replicate the start to the match early in the second half.

Generalovich earned her final goal of the night less than five minutes into the half, and just minutes later, Addie DeMain put another past Wagner to increase Poland’s lead to 5-2.

While Niles’ Taylor Bickerstaff did manage to score and pull back within two, the deficit was too much for the Dragons to overcome Wednesday.

“We beat ourselves,” Niles head coach Scott MacMillan said. “They’re a good team, don’t get me wrong. They’re a very good team, but you cannot drop the ball in the goal, and you cannot let a ball on your post go in between.”

MacMillan said Poland’s quick start to the second half, in particular, deflated his team.

“Every time we’d score, they’d score,” Huda said. “The first three goals were free kicks. You can’t get beat on set plays. If you get beat on set plays, that means your defense didn’t step up. And you can’t give up five goals and win a game. You just can’t, not against a good team away.”

Although the result and execution left some to be desired, Huda seemed pleased that his team, which outscored Akron Manchester, South Range and Girard 30-0 to open the season, is facing stiffer challenges in conference play.

“I love playing Niles for the competitiveness, and Hubbard was a good one,” Huda said. “But it’s hard to gauge [the team’s skill] when you play somebody that’s not as good. It’s good to get the girls rest, but they want to play.”

Niles (4-1, 2-1) will return to action Saturday with a home match vs. Boardman.

Poland (5-0, 4-0) will travel to West Branch on Saturday for the first of two consecutive away matches.

Have an interesting story? Contact Preston Byers by email at pbyers@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @PresByers.