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Precurato leads Fitch to first win
By TIM CLEVELAND
CORTLAND
The Austintown Fitch High girls soccer team scored two first-half goals on Saturday, then held on for a 2-1 victory over Lakeview for the Falcons’ first win of the season.
Fitch (1-5-2) used a tight defense to contain the Bulldogs, especially Lakeview’s outstanding senior striker Alli Pavlik.
“Alli’s been in the papers the last couple weeks,” Lakeview coach Shawn Varley said. “Everybody knows that she’s been putting a lot of goals away, so teams are man-marking her. We’ve got to find [another] way to score.”
Falcons coach Tex Martin said goalkeeper Andrea Precuratro deserves extra kudos for her play in net.
“Our goalkeeper did an awesome job,” Martin said. “I think she’s the one who should be the MVP. She basically held us in the game.”
Lakeview had a chance to get on the board with 7:30 remaining in the first half as Abby Pavlik was fouled in the box to earn a penalty kick. Her sister Alli took the shot but Precurato made the biggest save of the game.
Senior captain Lauren Bower gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead with 19:13 remaining in the first half as she put a low shot in the goal. Sophomore Kaelyn Puhalla scored the game-winning goal at 12:55 with a high shot.
“Kaelyn Puhalla had a nice touch to the left, a tough to the right and a shot which was right on goal,” Martin said. “Lauren Bower scored our other one fighting for a loose ball and poked it in.
“Our attacks were there. On the ball, we attacked quick. We crossed a lot early that gave us a lot of early chances at goals.”
Trailing by two goals at halftime, Lakeview (6-2-1) started the second half with more aggressiveness. The result was evident as Alli Pavlik beat two defenders to the ball and broke in alone on Precurato. Pavlik’s low shot pulled the Bulldogs to within a goal with 33:50 to play.
“She had a couple opportunities like that today,” Varley said. “We didn’t capitalize on them. That was an excellent goal by her.”
Despite allowing the goal to Pavlik, Martin said he was pleased with the overall performance of his defense.
“They played great,” he said. “The two [Pavlik] sisters are very tough to handle either way. They have a lot of other weapons, but those two are the main ones we wanted to stop and hopefully stay in the game. [Rachel Braunegg] is their other main goal scorer who we shut out today.”
Braunegg had two good scoring chances in the final 20 minutes for Lakeview, but failed to put the ball in the goal.
Varley said a lack of consistency hurt Lakeview in recent games.
“We had two games last week,” he said. “In the Newton Falls game, we moved the ball around, controlled possession, we attacked and created space and attacked through that space.
“But [in] the Champion game, we got into a kickball match. That’s what we did in the first half against Fitch. It was Alli Pavlik and Rachel Braunegg up top going against four or five Fitch players.”