Canfield joins the elite

Tournament highlights | Soccer, volleyball

The Cardinals won 1-0 to advance to the Div. I regional finals.

By DOUG CHAPIN

Vindicator Correspondent

TWINSBURG — The Canfield Cardinals are part of Ohio’s Elite Eight in girls soccer for the first time in school history thanks to a 1-0 victory Wednesday night over West Geauga in a Division I regional semifinal at Twinsburg Chamberlin Middle School.

The Cards (13-2-6) face Walsh Jesuit at noon Saturday at Rocky River High in the regional championship game.

“It’s extremely exciting,” Canfield coach Phil Simone said. “This is the girls program’s first time there [Elite Eight], it’s my first time there. We’re ecstatic.”

Canfield had just one previous appearance (1998) in the regional but was beaten in the semifinal round.

Senior forward Audrey Smith, who came into Wednesday’s game with 18 goals, scored what might be her biggest goal of the season with 11:10 remaining. Smith was given space momentarily by the West Geauga defense about 28 yards from goal and she drove the ball into the lower left corner to decide the contest.

“She [Smith] has the leg and the nose for the goal,” Simone said. “She gets one opening and it could be the game-winner.”

The Canfield defense stifled the Wolverines’ attack, limiting West Geauga (12-5-3) to two shots on goal, both of which were saved by Jackie Podolsky.

One save in particular was difficult, a high shot headed for the top of the goal which Podolsky parried over the crossbar with about 30 minutes remaining in the second half.

The Cardinal back four of Meredith Gleichert, Dayna Love, Katie Carlisle and Jessica Hughes, along with defensive midfielder Brooke Mangiarelli, were solid throughout the contest.

On offense, Canfield struggled to put together goal-scoring opportunities. The Cardinals took six shots, four on goal, in the first half, and added seven more shots, five on goal, after intermission.

But except for a blast off the crossbar with 25 minutes remaining in the game by Jenne Battaglia, few of those shots troubled West Geauga goal keeper Lauren Kelly.

“We did not play as well as we can [in the first half],” Simone said. “They had what seemed like … You’re only allowed to play 11 on the field; it seemed like they had 20 in the back. They were marking Audrey, she had two or three girls on her at a time.

“What we tried to do at the half was get some more numbers up forward, especially wide, and put a little bit more pressure on them.”