Mooney edges Boardman

September 6, 2012 at 12:09a.m.

Photo by: MADELYN P. HASTINGS

Nicole Deley of Boardman moves the ball upfi eld during Wednesday’s game against Cardinal Mooney. The Cardinals won, 3-2.

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Based on the longstanding Boardman-Cardinal Mooney rivalry, Julie Vazquez and her Cardinal teammates anticipated a certain type of game heading into Wednesday’s matchup.

“We knew Boardman was going to be a tough game,” Vazquez said.

It was exactly that, as Mooney edged the Spartans, 3-2, in a hard-fought battle at Boardman High School.

“It was a good win for us,” Mooney coach Frank Sikich said. “The girls played hard. A lot of girls in the second half played all 40 minutes.”

One was Vazquez, who said the Cardinals (2-3) were keyed by a simple game plan.“Our main focus was just to talk to each other, stay connected as a team, and try to put balls in the back of the net,” she said.

Vazquez found the back of the net early in the first half, putting Mooney ahead 1-0 at the 33:42 mark. But Boardman (1-3-1) answered quickly, tying the game only minutes later.

However, the Cardinals regained the lead with 23:44 in the first half on a score by sophomore Talia Tobin. To cap the scoring for Mooney, Velasquez connected on a penalty kick to extend the lead to 3-1.

“I guess when you score two goals, you can be happy, but I always want more and more,” she said. “But I also try to pass the ball off and help my team win in any way.”

Meanwhile, Boardman coach Fawzi Mujahed wasn’t so sure about the referee’s call.

“I don’t think it should have been a penalty kick,” Mujahed said. “But we came back.”

The Spartans cut the lead to 3-2 to end the first half.

“I was very happy with their performance in the first half,” Sikich said about his teams’ three scores. “But you wanna put a couple in in the second half, too.”

While both teams certainly tried to find the goal in the second half, they each came up empty. Boardman threatened for much of the second period, but continually missed their target.

“The second half, we absolutely controlled the whole time,” Mujahed said. “We had a lot of shots and just missed the goal by inches. We should have taken advantage of a lot of the fouls, but unfortunately it wasn’t our day.”

Sikich said a more conservative defensive effort in the second half paid dividends.

“We played a little bit deeper because we knew they were just trying to go over the top instead of building from the midfield,” he said. “We knew we had to win those balls at midfield, and we did that.”

Velasquez said the Cardinals can’t “dwell” on the victory.

“We need to take [our season] one game at a time,” she said. “We have to look forward and not dwell on the past.”