Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Howland senior Grace Villwock (17) races to the ball with Poland’s Kennedy Henderson (8) as they aim to gain possession. Villwock finished Wednesday’s game with a pair of goals.

HOWLAND — Howland’s attacking duo of sophomore Madison Schmitz and senior Grace Villwock combined for six goals in an 8-0 takedown of Poland on Wednesday.

The win wraps up the Tigers’ regular season with a 15-2 record.

Howland’s red-hot offense isn’t just the duo of Schmitz and Villwock. The connectivity of the entire unit has led to Howland’s success.

“It’s been a combination of Ava Boothe upfront with her movement, connecting everybody, Ava Yannucci, obviously, and there’s no denying the speed of Maddie and Grace,” Tigers coach Greg Mitchell said. “It’s the connectivity of all of them, including the two central midfielders as well, just the way they connect with each other has been the hallmark of the season.”

They just let the hot hand guide them.

“They are all very hardworking kids, and they’re unselfish, so that helps as well,” Mitchell said. “When you look at the scores during the course of the season, you have all four of them within a goal of each other. So on any given day, any one of them can get the job done. They look for each other all the time, which is the awesome part about it. It pretty much sums up the way we play. We just end up just finding the best open option to get the job done and that’s what they do.”

Poland held tough for much of the first half, but eventually Howland’s speed overwhelmed them and the goals started coming.

Schmitz had a pair in the first half. Before the halfway point of the second half, she already had her hat trick.

Sprinkle in a pair of goals from Villwock to open the second half, and the Tigers quickly took control.

Schmitz added one final goal in the waning minutes to reach four on the night.

“You can only do so much,” Poland coach Neil Huda said of Howland’s attack. “Their speed was incredible. That’s the fastest team we played all year, and I knew it was going to be. I knew they were fast, and we just had to sit somebody on defense that we usually don’t and try to keep speed with speed. They’re really good.”

Poland finishes the regular season with a 12-3-2 mark. They’ll open the postseason tournament with the winner of Ursuline and Canton South.

With the playoffs looming, there was no better tune-up for the Bulldogs.

“We knew this would be a tune-up. I doubt we see a team this fast in the playoffs, but it’s just to get the girls back into better shape and start doing the small things, little things,” Huda said. “Set pieces, and just work on that and see what we can do. Try and make some noise.”

Howland opens up the postseason with the Grafton Midview Middies. With seven seniors on the roster in the twilight of their high school soccer careers, Mitchell is hoping to see this journey last as long as it can.

“Staying healthy, that’s going to be the key,” he said. “Staying healthy and there’s some little mistakes that we still need to clean up. But for the most part, they’ve been pretty consistent down the stretch. If we can stay away from some of the mistakes at times, I think we’ll be fine. But like I said, we have some tough opponents coming up in the tournament, so we’ll see how they do.

“As long as we can stay healthy, that’s going to be the key. And keep playing together the way we have. It’s been great. It’s been great to watch them. It’s been a joy to coach them these past four years, and to see them go out like this is very rewarding and satisfying for me to see this group of girls finish up like this.”