Mooney blanks Irish to seal SVC title

Katie Griswold scored four goals and the Cardinals’ defense was dominant.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — Katie Griswold scored four goals, Ashley Cuba added two, and the Mooney defense stifled Ursuline’s attack in a 6-0 Steel Valley Conference girls soccer rout Wednesday at Rocky Ridge.

The win clinches the SVC title for the Cards (7-1-4). Mooney is 2-0 in the conference with a game against Warren Harding scheduled tonight. Ursuline is 2-1 in the league, 10-2-2 overall.

“Our defense has played well all year. I think that’s our sixth shutout,” Mooney coach Jason Keller said.

Senior goal keeper Megan McLaughlin and senior central defender Colleen Hernan lead the Cardinal defense. Also on the back line are juniors Emma Engler, Kelcie Herberger and Kelly Sklenar.

“We had shutouts against Walsh Jesuit and Bexley, and they are No. 5 in Division I and No. 1 in Division II,” Keller said. “Some of our shutouts are against top competition, the best in the state.”

Griswold opened the scoring in the game, but not until about 20 minutes in. After Cuba’s free kick from about 27 yards out was saved by Ursuline keeper Nikka Bonamase, Griswold pounced on the rebound and drilled it home.

Cuba then scored twice in the final five minutes of the first half. She put a shot from about 30 yards out over Bonamase’s head and into the net, then on a free kick from 25 yards, she drilled the ball into the lower corner to the right of Bonamase.

Griswold added three goals in the second half. She scored early in the half on a long through ball from Maggie Vinopal. Then, about midway through the half, she scored off a corner kick by Vinopal. The ball was knocked down in the penalty area and Griswold was the first to get to it, scoring from about 10 yards away. Her final goal was unassisted with about 13 minutes remaining.

“Tonight in the second half we pretty much controlled the game,” Keller said. “We just had to get over the first 20-minute jitters you get in a rivalry game.”

Ursuline coach Frank Sikich liked the way his team started the contest.

“The start of the game, we came in, we were focused,” he said. “We were playing patiently, but a couple bounces didn’t go our way in the first half. When that happened, we couldn’t recover.”

Mooney is top-seeded in the Division II district tournament which starts next week. The Cardinals are two-time defending district champions. They face South Range in the first round on Tuesday.

“We’re playing pretty good at this point of the season,” Keller said. “Our toughest part of the schedule was really at the beginning of the year. In trying to get ready for the tournament, practice is important now. We actually don’t mind playing three games in four days this week, it kind of keeps us on our toes.”

Ursuline is the third seed and the Irish, who lost 4-0 to Mooney in last year’s district final, face Liberty on Tuesday.

“We will learn from this game,” Sikich said. “We’ll look back at what we did and correct it by the district final. We did that last year and we’ll do the same thing again.”