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Canfield vies for crown
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BALL BATTLE: Fitch’s Christian Goleno, left, battles Canfield’s Gia Nigro for the ball during Monday’s Division I district semifinal girls soccer game in Austintown. The Cardinals won 1-0 in overtime.
Battaglia’s goal lifts Cardinals to a rematch with Poland
By DOUG CHAPIN
Vindicator Correspondent
AUSTINTOWN — In 2008, the Canfield and Fitch High girls soccer teams both lost in the district semifinal round of the Division I tournament.
Facing each other Monday in another district semifinal meant that one was guaranteed a berth in the final.
Canfield (11-2-6) turned out to be that team following a 1-0 victory on a goal by Jenne Battaglia with 14:09 remaining.
The third-seeded Cardinals will be the host team in the district final Thursday at 7 p.m. against second-seeded Poland.
“A lot of the girls played in that game,” Canfield coach Phil Simone said about the Cards‘ 4-1 loss to Poland a year ago. “We only graduated three from last year, so that did help.
“We talked all week about the fact the Canfield girls have not been in a district final since 2001,” Simone said. “So that was definitely a goal of ours.”
Battaglia’s goal came off a corner kick. Canfield’s Audrey Smith drilled a shot from the top of the penalty area, but Fitch keeper Ali Tolich redirected it over the crossbar for a save. Tolich finished with seven saves on the night.
Smith dropped the ensuing corner kick into the mixer in front of the goal and Tolich managed to save one shot from Battaglia.
But the senior captain pushed the second attempt into the goal.
“We wanted to get to the final, so we fell short by one game,” Fitch coach Carlo Trafficante said. “We started the season very slow but prior to this game we had won 10 of our last 11 games.
“We gained some confidence along the way and I felt better about how we were playing toward the end of the season,” Trafficante said.
The game was a tale of two halves as Fitch had the best of the play in the first half and Canfield in the second.
The fifth-seeded Falcons (12-5-2) took nine shots (seven on goal) in the first half, compared to three (none on goal) for Canfield.
After intermission the Cards fired 10 shots (eight on goal) to four (three on goal) for Fitch.
“I thought in the first half Fitch won more of the 50-50 balls,” Simone said. “We told our girls we had to step to it harder in the second half and they did.
“We wanted to work on winning at least the first five minutes of the second half.”
Included in the first-half attack by the Falcons was an outstanding scoring opportunity with about 30 minutes remaining.
On a free kick from about 35 yards out, Kaitlyn Shiley blasted the ball off the crossbar. It came back to Emily Durina right in front, but Canfield goalkeeper Jackie Podolsky made an excellent save to keep the game scoreless.
“We knew that after the first round every game was going to be a close game,” Trafficante said. “In a close game it comes down to executing on our opportunities and taking advantage of their mistakes, and trying to limit our mistakes so they can’t take advantage.
“They were able to finish on the opportunity they had on the corner kick, you’ve got to give them credit.”
The Falcons came into the game fresh off a 1-0 overtime victory over top-seeded Howland.
“When we went to the seeding meeting I named six teams that I thought could win the district, the field was that tight and that close,” Trafficante said. “We felt good, obviously, about beating the number one seed. That gave us some confidence.”
Simone said the Cardinals have made several changes since a 1-1 tie against Fitch early in the season.
“That was our first game of the season,” he said. “Since then a lot of people have moved around and we have some different faces starting. Sickness has been killing us this week, we’ve got two girls who didn’t make the trip today. We’re not close to 100 percent.”