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Howland repels Poland, gains soccer regional
The Tigers remain unbeaten and advanced to the Twinsburg regional.
HOWLAND — “Don’t be satisfied,” is the message Howland High girls soccer coach Pat Hovance told his team following the Tigers’ 3-2 win over Poland Thursday to capture the Division I district championship.
The Tigers (16-0-3) fought off a tremendous challenge from the Bulldogs, especially in the final 10 minutes of the contest, to hold off Poland and advance to regional play.
Howland will play in the Twinsburg regional on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“The girls have been working since January for this [championship],” Hovance said. “I’m so happy for them. We stepped up tonight against a really good Poland team.
“Its fantastic to be going back to regionals.”
The Tigers last made it to regionals in 2006 when they defeated Poland 1-0 in a shootout.
“It feels great,” said Howland All-District defender Megan Long who played a key role in stopping the Bulldogs.
“We knew Poland would come with a lot of pressure,” Long said. “It was a great atmosphere with the crowd and all but we knew we had to stay calm and relaxed and take care of business out there.”
The early pressure came from the Tigers who scored two back-to-back goals midway through the first half.
Howland scored with 12:47 left in the half when Poland goalkeeper, Stephanie Ciccone came out to contest a shot by Gina Albani who shot a pass to a wide open Olivia Nicholas who shot into the empty net.
Two minutes later, the Tigers tallied again when Jess Wilson found deflected shot by Albani and beat her defender to get off a shot from the left side of the goal that found the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.
Poland (12-6-2) recovered and with 4.25 left before half, the Bulldog’s Erin Gabriel drilled a 25-yard shot over the outstretched arms of Howland’s Casey Haering to cut the lead to 2-1.
That led to perhaps the biggest play of the night when Poland scored with just 43 seconds remaining before halftime.
Abby Nicholas drilled in a rebounded shot off a corner kick by Wilson that bounced away from Poland’s back-up goalkeeper Samantha Susich.
The sophomore saw her first action in goal all year after briefly replacing Ciccone who was injured on Howland’s second goal.
“That goal was gigantic,” Hovance said. “They had their back-up goalkeeper in there and we felt like we had to get one in their while their starter was out.
“Poland had the momentum but that put it right back in our hands.”
The Bulldogs got back in the game early in the second half when Sam Robertson scored from 12-yards out on an assist by Vivian Clayton with 38:02 left in the game.
From that point on, the game was in the hands of Long and Haering who preserved the victory for the Tigers.
“Our defense has been supporting me all year long,” Haering said. “Tonight, we weren’t as good as usual but we held them off and got the win.”
First-year Poland coach John Cavalier said he felt like his team gave a great effort despite coming up short.
“We played a hard game and left everything out on the field,” Cavalier said. “When we got it to 3-2 I thought the tide was changing but Howland’s a great team but we’re a very young team that will be back.”
Poland was 3-5-1 at one point this season before going on a 6-0-1 run to end the season.
Howland outshot the Bulldogs, 9-8.