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Lake Center rebounds to oust Champion Golden Flashes
macedonia
Lake Center Christian’s girls soccer team overcame a 1-0 halftime deficit to defeat Champion, 2-1, in Wednesday’s Division III regional semifinal at Nordonia High School.
It spoiled a rare appearance at the regional level by Champion, which bowed out 13-3-2.
“The last time we were in this spot a few years back [19 years], we lost 9-0,” Champion coach Dan Houle said of the Golden Flashes’ improvement since its last regional semifinal appearance in 1992.
On the other hand, Lake Center Christian’s soccer program is only six years old, yet the Tigers (13-5-2) have a Saturday noon date against the winner of the Elyria Catholic-Shaker Heights Laurel winner.
Lake Center from Hartville first reached the district semifinals two years ago, then won its first district this year, beating Springfield, 2-1, in OT.
Lake Center coach Jim Kadlecek said that Champion had an advantage in the first half because they played at least two or three playoff games on turf because of wet field conditions, while the Tigers played all of their games on grass.
SDLqI think it took us the first half just to get acclimated to the turf,” Kadlecek said. “At halftime, I told the girls, ‘Now, you know how the ball’s going to play and you know what they’re going to do, so the second half is going to be about determination and heart and how much you want it.’
“I think the difference was that we started winning a lot of those 50-50 balls that we weren’t winning in the first half. That was allowing us to keep the pressure on and, fortunately, get some goals.”
Natalie Rostedt had the go-ahead goal with 12:15 remaining after Sarah Battista tied it at 1-1 at 28:20 of the second half.
Champion’s Amber Walker scored at 19:27 of the first half after taking a pass from Molly Stephens.
Houle gave his assessment of the second half.
“We got out of our passing game, for whatever reason,” Houle said. “I don’t know whether they pressured us too much or we were concerned with No. 19 [Rostedt]. But they took us out of our passing game and that was the difference in the game. We just couldn’t get through balls on anything. They played better.”
Champion goalkeeper Kelly Robinson made nine saves, including five in the second half. The Golden Flashes took three shots on goal — all in the first half.