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High five: Poland advances in district soccer
By Doug Chapin
POLAND
The Poland High girls soccer team advanced to the district level of Division I tournament play for the fifth straight season.
The Bulldogs were victorious after a 5-1 rout of Boardman on Saturday night in a sectional final.
Poland (13-3-2) opened a 2-0 lead in the first half before Boardman (9-8-1) tallied its lone goal with six minutes remaining in the half. The winners then re-established a two-goal cushion with a goal just 53 seconds before halftime.
A fourth goal a little more than two minutes into the second half all but clinched the verdict for Poland, which played the Spartans to a 1-1 tie when the sides met during the regular season.
“We weren‘t ready the first time, we came out flat,” Poland coach John Cavalier said about the first meeting. “What they do on defense is they really pack the box. This week, what we practiced a lot on was not dribbling as much, but trying to go over them and making things happen, like corner kicks. That paid off, we had two goals on corner kicks.”
He added, “So we changed our tactics a little bit, and once we got them wide, we were able to cross the ball and things were happening. Plus, the girls came out and played tonight. From the starting kickoff, we were here.”
Senior Tatum Marucci delivered perfect corner kicks on the aforementioned goals, the Bulldogs’ first and third tallies of the night. Maura Bobby headed in the first, and Erin Gabriel did the honors on the third goal just before halftime.
In between, Kelsey Malenic scored in front off a cross from Carolyn Balzano. Abby Brenoel scored the fourth Poland goal and Malenic tallied a second time, again on an assist by Balzano, with 1:20 remaining in the game.
Senior Heather Hughes scored her 28th goal of the season for Boardman. She had several other near misses, especially in the first half, hitting the post in the ninth minute and barely missing high on a shot from about 20 yards out.
“The first half I was a little bit upset with our defense because they didn’t slide,” Cavalier said. “When they see someone coming down into the gap, one of them has to move over. They seemed like they were on their heels. The second half they started sliding over as a team, filling in the gaps and the inside [midfielders] got back to help.”
The Bulldogs will travel to Howland on Wednesday for a district semifinal.