Staff photo / Brian Yauger Canfield’s Ally Stein, left, drives down the field while being chased by Kate Bartlett of Chagrin Falls.

CANFIELD — It was a tale of two halves for the Canfield Cardinals girls soccer team as they dropped their Division II Regional semifinal matchup against Chagrin Falls, 5-3.

Despite keeping a good grip on the possession throughout most of the first half, mistakes doomed Canfield as the Tigers were able to capitalize.

“I said yesterday that the team makes the fewest mistakes is going to come out on top,” Cardinals coach Phil Simone said. “That’s about mistakes. Mistakes we didn’t make all year, and we made a ton of them tonight.”

The Cardinals weren’t able to finish at the net and couldn’t keep up with the speedy Chagrin Falls strikers.

Tigers senior Creagan Mee made those first-half Canfield lapses count for her team as she buried two shots in the first 15 minutes of the game. A goal from Katie Schumacher put the Tigers up 3-0 going into the break.

The game appeared to be over at that point. The Chagrin Falls crowd was energized, and the Canfield side near silent.

As the 10 minutes ticked off during halftime, something changed on the Cardinal side of the field. When the second half kicked off, Canfield looked like a completely different team.

Just over 3 minutes in the second half, the re-energized Cardinals got on the board as Marissa Ieraci fired a shot that beat Chagrin Falls goalkeeper Aerin Krebs.

That burst of energy came in the form of a pep talk from Simone, who reminded them that this was it.

“I told them it’s do or die, you gotta leave it all out there,” Simone said. “Throw your body into it. Just play physical, try to win every ball, go after it. There’s nothing to lose at this point in time.”

Not even 2 minutes later, Angelina Mangie put another on the board to close the gap even tighter. Then, just 1 minute later, another Canfield mistake reared its ugly head, as the Cardinals scored an own goal to make the game 4-2.

Canfield was able to recover when an elbowing call on a Chagrin Falls defender set up a penalty kick for Cardinals captain Ally Stein. Stein drilled the kick as it went through to once again bring Canfield within one goal with 30 minutes to go.

Over the next 20 minutes, both teams battled and struggled to maintain possession for long. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Chagrin Falls was able to power a ball into the net to give them a 5-3 lead, which sealed the win.

The tenacity they showed in the second half is a testament to their character, according to Simone.

“Down 3-0 at half, to get three goals on a team that’s only given up 10 all year just defines how much character they have,” he said.

Chagrin Falls advances to the Division II Regional Final where it faces Copley.

As for the Cardinals, their season ends, but according to their coach, Canfield has plenty to be proud of this year.

“Nobody wants to bow out at this level, but they can’t be ashamed of what they accomplished and the effort that they gave being three down,” Simone said.