Springfield cruises to win over Struthers
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NEW MIDDLETOWN -- Springfield scored early and often Wednesday evening, defeating non-conference foe Struthers 14-0 to improve to 5-4 on the season.
The Tigers' first goal came 80 seconds after kickoff, and there were few prolonged stretches without Springfield adding to its lead in the rest of the first half.
"Our girls executed like they had to," Springfield head coach Justin Kosek said. "It lets everybody play, which is nice. We have a very, very difficult schedule this year, and we haven't had a lot of games where we've been able to play more than our top 14 girls, I would say. So to put them in and do what we did in the first half and really dominate the game, which is what we talked about in the locker room beforehand.
"But then to come out in the second half, and really play a 3-3-1 and drop a lot of girls off and do exactly what we talked about at halftime and execute in that kind of situation and challenge them in a way that they haven't been challenged before and still hold a shutout -- that's what we got out of this one. I think there was a lot of growth just with touches and movement off the ball."
Forty seconds into the match, Kristina Vecchione nearly opened the scoring as Struthers struggled to clear the ball out of its box, but her shot sailed over the crossbar.
She would not miss on her second chance, though, which came 40 seconds later after a Wildcats turnover. Emma Zitkovic doubled the Tigers' advantage the following minute.
Seven minutes in, Liv Zitkovic fought through contact in the box to get a shot off and score Springfield's third goal. The lead grew to 4-0 moments later when Emma Zitkovic scored her second goal of the game.
The Tigers continued to pour it on throughout the rest of the first half, with Leah Garcia, Bronwyn Wilmouth, Georgia Smith and Liv Zitkovic adding goals, as did Vecchione and Emma Zitkovic, who both completed hat tricks to take a 12-0 lead into halftime.
Liv Zitkovic and Reagan Peoples each scored goals in the second half, which featured numerous Springfield substitutions and a significantly more effective Struthers attack albeit without any goals.
"We're definitely a second-half team," Struthers head coach Samantha DuBois said. "They see kind of what we're working with usually in the first half. So by the second half, they're like, 'OK, we're going to stop these girls here.' They wake up. So even when we were down some players, we get them breaks, get them back in, get going. I will say we definitely woke up that second half. We were passing better. The confidence came back. And I think that's our biggest thing, is keeping our confidence."
With the loss, Struthers sank to 0-6 to start the season. The Wildcats, who suffer from inexperience and few to no substitutes and had only played Northeast 8 Conference (NE8) opponents until Wednesday, have been outscored 74-0 this year.
They will return to NE8 play tonight with a match against South Range in Beaver Township.
"We're in a very rebuild of a year," DuBois said. "Obviously we don't have many girls and about a fourth of our team has never played soccer before. But each game, we have shown tremendous improvement. I couldn't be prouder of these girls. They stick it out. They play to the end. So I'm definitely confident by the end of this season we're gonna see a lot more."
Springfield (5-4, 4-1 in Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference – Grey) will similarly resume league play with its next match. The Tigers, who have won their last two games by a combined score of 23-0, are at Southeast on Saturday.
"We were front-loaded big time," Kosek said of the league schedule. "Southeast on Saturday is always a tough game, especially going to Southeast on a Saturday morning. Just throws off the whole routine of what we're used to doing. But we've watched them play a couple of times, and we'll be ready for them."