JOHN KOVACH | Colleges Zunic, Pietro wear Yellow Jackets

BEREA -- Two Canfield High graduates -- Whitney Zunic and Matt Pietro -- are playing key roles in the success of the Baldwin-Wallace College women's and men's soccer teams.
Zunic, a sophomore forward, helped the women's team to a seven-game winning streak over the past two weeks, with six of the wins being by shutouts, before the Yellow Jackets were stopped Saturday by Otterbein, 5-0, in Westerville in an Ohio Athletic Conference match.
Pietro, a sophomore forward for the men's team, has been a big factor in the Yellow Jackets' 10-3 record, including 2-0 in the OAC, entering Saturday night's home match against Otterbein.
Zunic scored one goal in each of B-W's last four wins, including two game-winning goals, to help the Yellow Jackets streak to a 10-2 record, including 2-0 in the OAC, before she and her teammates were shut out by Otterbein.
Third-leading scorer
"It was really a tough game. Otterbein is really a tough team and they are highly-ranked and we tried to play a defensive game against them and were confused," said Zunic, who is B-W's third-leading scorer with 12 points on five goals and two assists.
She ranks behind junior Jenny Miller with 18 points on six goals and six assists, and Katie Demby with 14 points on five goals and four assists.
Zunic is joined on the B-W team by Brittan Davis (Poland), a sophomore midfielder, who has scored three points on one goal and one assist.
Another standout is sophomore goalie Michelle Neff (Strongsville), who achieved her eighth shutout of the season against Heidelberg, and her sixth in the seven games, before Otterbein found a way to score on her.
Zunic believes her team will bounce back.
"After we lost our first OAC game last year, we plummeted. But this year it will be different and we will learn from this," said Zunic, who feels that her team has developed well from last year.
"Our team has been working really well together. We keep building from last year. We had a young team last year."
Four-game scoring streak
Zunic began her scoring streak on Sept. 24 when she scored the game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Defiance, and followed that with goals against Hiram (4-0 win on Sept. 28) and Muskingum (2-0 win Oct. 1).
Then this past week, Zunic scored the winning goal against Heidelberg (1-0 win on Wednesday) on an assist by Davis.
Last season, Zunic ranked second on the team in scoring with 15 points and second in goals with seven, and made the All-OAC second team, as B-W posted a 10-9-1 record. She also was selected as the B-W Player of the Year.
The daughter of Larry and Nancy Zunic, Whitney also is an outstanding student. As a freshman, she had a 3.5 grade-point average or better in each semester.
Pietro second-leading scorer
Pietro is the Yellow Jackets' second-leading scorer with 10 points on four goals and two assists, and has taken a team-high 19 shots. He ranks in scoring behind senior Geoff Andrews with 14 points on 10 goals and four assists.
Pietro scored two goals in B-W's 4-0 win over Defiance Sept. 24, increasing his total for game-winners in 2005 to a team-leading three.
In B-W's 1-0 win over Hiram, Pietro had an assist on senior Josh Dundr's goal that gave B-W a 1-0 win.
kovach@vindy.com