Canfield out-duels Mooney for title

By matthew peaslee

mpeaslee@vindy.com

canfield

All was quiet during Saturday’s halftime at Bob Dove Field as Mooney and Canfield were knotted at 0-0. Neither offense had clicked.

But as the second half was just about to start, a low rumble could be heard from the band shell where the home team was posted up. It continued to the sidelines where the players were louder and more vocal.

Canfield was ready for a change in the second half and it produced a 1-0 victory over Mooney for the Division II district title.

“We just wanted to go out with a bang and finish hard to do the best that we could,” Hannah Day said.

That included strengthening the tempo with the ball and controlling the offensive advantage. Right away, it happened with a pair shots, one from Alexa Billy and one from Brogan Todd.

But the bang had yet to come.

It would at the 34:17 mark, though, as Jen Morris sent a corner kick to the goal box where Day headed it off a Mooney defender before the ball found the goal. The lone score of the game, it gave Canfield its second district championship in three years.

Just as it was drawn up, right?

“We work on a few corner set plays,” Day said. “But I think I got really lucky on that one.”

Nonetheless, Canfield knew what they were doing with the ball. The play that actually set up that corner kick, one of six in the second nd half, was a specialty from coach Phil Simone.

It was a free kick about 30 yards out and instead of one player lining up to take it, three basically did. Canfield surrounds the ball with numerous attackers that move around in an effort to distract the defense before one player eventually boots it.

Simone, whose parents hail from Italy and got him into the game at a young age, says he’s been around soccer long enough to discover tricky nuances that can turn into big things.

“It’s just something I picked up along the way,” he said. “I’ve been playing since I was little and you find little things like that. It’s a little bit of deception at times and it’s a success if we catch them off guard and maybe sneak one in.”

“We always do it the week before tournaments,” senior captain Kendyl Carlisle said. “So, its fairly new. We’ve practiced so hard on them recently.”

Canfield will face Walsh Jesuit in Ravenna on Wednesday for the first round of regional play.