Mooney’s powerful offense blanked, 2-0

By Doug Chapin

MEDINA — When the Hathaway Brown girls soccer team headed into the locker room at halftime Saturday at Medina Memorial Soccer Stadium, it would not have been surprising if defenders Kylie Kaufman and Shelby Jahnke had stayed with Cardinal Mooney forward Katie Griswold and the rest of the Cardinals on their team bench.

After all, Kaufman and Jahnke had followed Griswold, Mooney’s all-time leading goal scorer, all over the pitch in the first half of the Blazers’ 2-0 victory in the Div. II regional championship game.

With Griswold effectively stymied, the Cardinals were unable to get much offense going and Hathaway Brown racked up a 13-1 edge in shots in the first half, including the two goals.

“We pretty much knew what each team was going to do,” Mooney coach Jason Keller said about the third meeting in a year between the two teams. “We just had kind of an off day and they played really well. I really think they’ll win it [state] again this year.”

Mooney defeated the Blazers 3-1 during the regular season after Hathaway Brown had beaten the Cardinals 3-2 in overtime last season in a regional semifinal.

“We weren’t winning a lot of balls, they were getting to the ball first, and we didn’t have much chance of keeping possession for a good part of the game,” Keller said. “They had a great shot for their first goal and the second goal was kind of a mix-up. But I thought the defense played very well.

“It was tough, they kept four or five people back after the first goal. But they are the defending state champs, they are a very good team.”

Hathaway Brown (13-4-3) is big, physical, athletic and skilled. Several players have big kicks, thus the Blazers can score on shots from distance as well as from working the ball into the penalty area.

Their first goal came with 29:14 remaining in the first half on a 35-yard bomb from freshman midfielder Sasha Haverchak. The blast went just under the crossbar, just above the outstretched fingers of Mooney goalkeeper Rachel Letscher, also a freshman.

Later in the half, a free kick by Lee Bachouros from the left touchline about 45 yards out resulted in one of Letscher’s five saves, and a 40-yard blast from Merrill Bachouros banged off the crossbar.

A through ball from Lee Bachouros sent Merrill Bachouros in toward goal late in the half. It looked like she would be stopped, but her shot trickled in past two Mooney defenders with 4:18 remaining in the half.