Canfield girls soccer finishes unbeaten in AAC

October 2, 2014 at 12:09a.m.

Bailey Fischer’s two goals lift Cardinals

AUSTINTOWN

The Canfield High girls soccer team finished perfect in the conference on Wednesday night, even if the Cardinals didn’t always look perfect.

“An ugly win is still a win,” Cardinals coach Phil Simone said.

Bailey Fischer scored two goals and Anita Mancini had an assist for the Cardinals, who defeated host Austintown Fitch, 2-1, to finish 8-0 in the All-American Conference Red Division.

Canfield (11-3), which beat the Falcons 5-0 in their earlier meeting, had already clinched the outright title before Wednesday’s game and Fischer thinks that may have hurt the Cardinals’ motivation.

“We weren’t really clicking tonight,” she said. “This is kind of our fallout game and I don’t know if we were motivated enough.”

Simone agreed.

“I don’t know if we were just a little flat because we knew we had the conference won already, but I told them I think we got outworked a little bit,” said Simone, whose team was ranked third in the state in Division II in the latest Ohio coaches poll. “But we still found a way to win the game.”

Fischer scored her first goal about 15 minutes into the first half, burying a high, arcing shot from about 30 yards out in front of the net.

“I received [the ball] at my feet, turned toward the goal and hit it hoping [for the best],” she said. “It went right over and in.”

The Cardinals controlled the rest of the first half, but they weren’t able to score again until about 35 minutes remaining in the second half, when Fischer struck again from about 25 yards out near the left hashmark.

“I received it going downline, cut it back and looked to place it in the top corner,” she said. “I look to take that shot a lot. I have the idea of where it’s going and know how to get it in there.”

“She’s got a knack for finishing,” Simone said of Fischer. “She can strike the ball with both feet fairly well. The teams that know her in the area are afraid of her speed, but she’s got more to her game than just speed. If you back off her a little in space, she can still control the ball and finish outside, not just on breakaways.”

Ten minutes later, Fitch cut the deficit to one when Kimmy Muccio fired a shot on goal from the far left side that Raquel Abel blocked. Muccio’s sister, Jackie, buried the follow.

“Sometimes all you need is a goal to get things moving,” Fitch coach Tex Martin said. “We got the goal and got fired [up].”

The Falcons had a few chances to tie, none better than Maia Totterdale’s header that missed the right corner of the goal by inches with about 12 minutes left, but thanks to Abel (four saves), the Cardinals were able to hold on.

“I know you have some bad games, so hopefully we got our bad game out of the way going into the tournament,” said Simone, who was missing two starters in senior Sophia Mancini and sophomore Angela Copploe. “We need to be a little bit better and a little bit sharper from here on out.”

Soriya Rezapourian had five saves for Fitch (7-5-2), which has improved as much mentally as it has physically this season, Martin said.

“The last time [they played Canfield], we kind of gave up a little bit once they got ahead of us by a couple goals,” he said. “We’re learning how to battle and fight teams back. We’re working on not letting people take easy shots on goal and staying with our marks and not panicking in situations like this when we’re down a goal.

“Even though we lost by one, this game was a lot better than the last time. That’s all I could hope for.”