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Starting off cold

Locals can’t lead YSU to win

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State junior captain and Austintown Fitch graduate Jordan Evans (23) kicks the ball away from an Oakland defender during the first half of YSU’s 2-1 season-opening loss.

YOUNGSTOWN — Snow is piled up high around the soccer pitch at Youngstown State.

Instead of a fall breeze sweeping across the field on a September evening, players and fans alike encountered a cold, brisk winter wind for the Penguins’ girls soccer season opener against Oakland on Wednesday afternoon.

Late last summer, the Horizon League nixed the fall slate for many of their sports, which has led to YSU playing a 10-game conference schedule spanning from February to early-April.

It’s a lot colder than it normally would be with earmuffs and gloves becoming an important commodity, but the Penguins are just excited to be playing again, despite a 2-1 loss to a veteran Oakland team.

Regardless of the forecast, soccer truly is an all-weather sport.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State freshman Abby Knight, an Austintown Fitch graduate, goes after a loose ball during the second half. The Penguins opened the season in frigid temperatures on YSU’s campus on Wednesday.

“The game is the game,” coach Brian Shrum said. “Obviously it’s just colder, and things are a little different because it’s a different time of the year, but the girls are ready to play and anxious to play.”

Oakland took an early 1-0 lead when Macey Wierenga netted a goal. The Golden Grizzlies took a 2-0 lead thanks to Jackie Reilly at the 26:55 mark.

YSU sophomore Marcella Sizer, a former All-Freshman Team selection in the Horizon League, successfully converted a penalty kick in the 30th minute to cut the deficit to 2-1, but the Penguins only recorded two shots in the second half.

Senior goalkeeper Kate McEachern recorded three second-half saves in the losing effort.

Under normal circumstances, the Penguins would use the spring to scrimmage schools like Akron, Kent, Ohio State and Duquesne. Not playing in the fall gave YSU extra opportunity to hold intrasquad scrimmages and ease in a young roster.

Eight out of the Penguins starting 11 were underclassmen, with three of those being freshmen. Juniors Bethany Rasile (Niles), Jordan Evans (Austintown-Fitch) and McEachern comprise the three upperclassmen in the starting lineup.

In total, 19 out of the 30 Penguins on the roster are sophomores or freshmen.

Evans, who was four-year letterwinner with the Falcons, has taken up a leadership role as a captain.

“I definitely try to show it for the younger girls, and everyone of my teammates,” she said. “I try to model what we should be doing everyday, 100 percent in practice, 100 percent in the classroom.

“Even off the pitch, just really being a leader, being a model for those people to look up to and show them how we should be acting and how we should be playing.”

YSU is coming off a 4-13-1 campaign in 2019 and normally plays several non-conference contests leading into league play. That isn’t the case this spring, meaning that teams have to learn their substitutions and other rotations on the fly.

“It’s definitely more challenging,” Evans said. “In regular season play we do get those nonconference games to try and test people out in different positions, test different formations.

“So definitely, this year, I think it was a little challenging just jumping right into that conference play, I mean Oakland was a great opponent to start. I’m very proud of the team, how we played. We pushed until the end there, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season because I have great hopes for us.”

Overall, Shrum saw a lot of positives to build on with such a young team.

“The adjustments, the young players all got a chance to contribute,” he said. “A lot of the young kids, the freshmen that we have this year, the sophomores now back again, so that was positive.

“I thought that there’s a lot of work to do, but to hang with that team and only lose by a goal was a really good opportunity and a really good performance by us.”

Something different from other Horizon League sports currently going on is the admittance of a limited number of fans, as families can socially distance in groups of four, compared to zero spectators at basketball, indoor track, swimming, tennis and volleyball.

YSU begins a two-game road trip next week at Detroit Mercy then UIC before returning home against Green Bay on the Feb. 24.

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