Boardman girls soccer storms past Poland

By BRANDON JUDEH

sports @vindy.com

BOARDMAN

As the wind and pouring rain came down at Boardman High School, the Spartans girls soccer team found a way to adjust to their first half woes and defeat Poland 3-0 Wednesday night.

A big part of Boardman’s problems was the strong winds coming in from the south, but with the wind in their favor in the second half things changed.

In the 10th minute of the second half, Spartan star forward Alison Green nailed a shot past Poland’s Miranda Easterbrook to open up the scoring.

“During the first half we played more defensively than anything,” said Green. “We hadn’t played them yet this year so we wanted to feel them out and in the second half our goal was to get more shots and have more opportunities.”

Twenty minutes later, Green added her second goal to seal the deal for the Spartans.

“I told the girls in the first half to play defense,” Spartans head coach Fawzi Mujahed said. “The wind was in their face so I didn’t want them to get tired. We knew that in the second half the wind would be with us and we could get plenty of chances to score.”

Boardman (4-4-1, 2-1-1 All-American Conference Red) goalie Kristen Huck had a monster game and made several key saves in the first half.

The senior stopped 12 shots on the night and had a much easier time in the second half with her kicks.

“It was so frustrating kicking into the wind in the first half,” Huck said. “It was a lot easier in the second and our defenders did a great job tonight of limiting them, especially late in the game.”

Both teams appeared flat in the first half, as neither team was able to break through for a score.

Though Poland (5-3, 3-1) controlled the ball on their half of the field for well over 75 percent of the half, head coach John Cavalier says his team had many breakdowns and missed some key shots early that may have changed the outcome.

“We missed many shots in the first half, we were down on their side for most of the half and couldn’t put a shot in,” he said. “I think if we were able to put a couple in then the outcome would have been different.

“This is a big rivalry game. It seems like every year we both teams kind of start out slow so they can feel each other out.”

Boardman squandered a couple of scoring opportunities midway through the first half. Freshman Cassie Stitt narrowly missed a goal when Easterbrook made a spectacular save.

Moments later, Spartan senior Alison Green’s shot went wide right and Boardman.

Also adding a goal for the Spartans in the 24th minute of the second half was senior Alexis Cailor.

Cailor nailed a header past Easterbrook that gave the Spartans a two-goal lead at the time.

Green has 15 goals on the season.