Poland pounds Panthers in district semifinal
Poland pounds Panthers in district semifinal
Trending
POLAND -- After a frustratingly scoreless first half, the third-seeded Poland girls soccer team's offense quickly came together in the second half, and the Bulldogs advanced to the Division IV, Northeast 1, district final with a 3-0 win vs. Akron Manchester on Tuesday.
"We are a second-half team, and I told them coming in, we have to play hard the first half, and I think we did," Poland head coach Melissa Kopanic said. "The other team, they marked us perfectly. They didn’t let the outsides get the ball, and that’s what we usually do. The outsides get the ball and then we cross it in. So I think they did a really good job marking us. We changed a couple things in the second half to have more girls up top, and I think that’s how we scored that first one. And then we just got the momentum to score the next two."
Although there was no scoring, the Bulldogs consistently peppered Panthers goalkeeper Journee Crabtree with shots throughout the first half.
Delaney Ankeles spearheaded several early attacks, as did Ashlynn Kushner, with both having shots saved by Crabtree and others barely missing the net. Ali Blinsky, Ellie Lewis and Ava Stabi also had shots turned away by Crabtree, though the Bulldogs' offense lost considerable steam as the half wore on and the missed shots piled up.
At halftime, Kopanic said that, in addition to some strategy, she stressed the importance of breaking through and scoring in the second half.
"If you don’t put the ball in the back of the net, you’re going home," Kopanic said. "So I think that was really the mindset going in the second half, is you got to put the ball in the back of the net or we’re going home."
The Bulldogs took the message to heart, and within three minutes, Lewis capitalized on a botched Manchester clear attempt and gave Poland the lead.
Four minutes later, Julianna McDougal put the Bulldogs ahead 2-0 when Lewis found her in the box and McDougal cashed in on the scoring opportunity.
Ankeles scored the third and final goal of the match with 22 minutes remaining via a penalty kick after she was tackled inside the box. On the penalty kick, McDougal crossed Crabtree up and buried the ball in the bottom-right part of the net.
"I always try to tell them, the first five, 10 minutes is what’s going to dictate the game. I really try to stress that," Kopanic said. "Like I said, in the first half, it never works. We got to figure something out. But that second half, five to 10 minutes, you have to score. We can’t just keep going and going and going without scoring."
With the win, Poland improved to 15-4 on the season and notched its seventh victory in a row. The Bulldogs will meet No. 16 Beachwood in the Northeast 1 district championship after the Bison defeated No. 7 Hubbard in the other semifinal Tuesday. Poland and Hubbard had split their pair of Northeast 8 Conference matches earlier this season.
The district final will be played at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin's Lion Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m.
"I know absolutely nothing about them, so I will watch film," Kopanic said. "Obviously it’s a playoff game, they’re gonna come in hard no matter what. And we just gotta come in harder.
"Obviously, they’re a good team because we knew Hubbard was a good team. And we knew how they played and everything. So to beat Hubbard, they must be pretty good. So we’ll watch film on them, and we'll do everything we have to for Saturday."