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Mooney girls reach regional final
The Cardinals defeated Chagrin Falls 4-1 in a Div. II semifinal contest.
KENT — The Cardinal Mooney High girls soccer team prepped for the 2008 postseason by playing a grueling regular season schedule that featured some to the top soccer programs in the state.
That schedule and a lot of “heart” according to senior forward Katie Griswold helped the Cardinals defeat Chagrin Falls 4-1 in a Division II regional semifinal game at Kent Roosevelt.
Cardinal Mooney (15-4-1) got two goals from Griswold (her 105th and 106th of her career) and one each from Ashley Cuba and Cassie Trgovcich to turn back the Tigers.
“We played with so much heart,” said Griswold. “We’ve let this slip away the last three years and we want to go for it all this season.
“We knew the team that played with more heart would win this game.”
This is the first time the Cardinals have made it to the regional finals after losing in the semifinals the last three years.
That’s where the regular season schedule may help the Cardinals in their next game.
Mooney will face Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown Saturday at noon at Medina High School.
Hathaway Brown was one of the premier programs on Mooney’s regular season schedule and the Cards upset the Blazers 3-1 early in the year.
“Our schedule got us to this point,” said Mooney coach Jason Keller. “Now we have to take the next step.”
Mooney faced the Tigers in the regular season and the two teams played to a 1-1 tie.
This time the Cards were determined to come away on top.
“We came out and took it to them and pretty much did what we wanted tonight,” Keller said. “We looked good and every single player played well.
“I’m proud of every one of them.”
Chagrin Falls coach Pamela Malone said Mooney was the better team.
“They came out hard, fast and had a great possession game going,” said Malone. “Once we got down we started to play on our heals.”
Mooney jumped out by scoring an early goal with 28:15 left in the first half.
Ashley Cuba drilled a shot from 8 yards on an assist by Amy Vinopal.
The Cards dominated the first half playing most of the 40 minutes on the Chagrin Falls end of the field.
The pressure paid off when Cassie Trgovcich found a loose ball that bounced away from the Tigers keeper and knocked it in the back of the net with 1:24 left in the half.
“We’ve never been down two goals,” Malone said. “It was too much to overcome.”
Chagrin Falls got back in the game early in the second half on a mistake by the Mooney defense that allowed the Tigers’ Caroline Smith to score a goal in the first minute of play to throw a brief scare into the Cards and cut the lead to 2-1.
It was all Mooney and Griswold the rest of the way.
The senior was unstoppable as she scored on two breakaway goals by beating Chagrin Falls’ defenders for two goals.
Griswold also misfired on three other shots as she kept Tigers’ goal keeper Morgan Liber well occupied.
“She’s too big strong, fast and skilled for most defenses,” said Keller of his all-state performer. “She’s really coming on strong at this point in the season and she wants to lead this team.”
Mooney out shot the Tigers 16-12 and Mooney’s freshman goal keeper Rachel Letscher saved 10 shots for the Cards.