Abel to save the day: Canfield goalie blanks Howland

By Ryan Buck

sports @vindy.com

CANFIELD

Her team’s scorebooks will only note that she made two saves Wednesday night, but Canfield goalkeeper Raquel Abel made them count.

Abel’s key second-half save preserved her team’s 1-0 lead over All-American Conference rival Howland before an insurance goal arrived and the Cardinals earned a hard-fought 2-0 victory at Bob Dove Field.

Canfield, ranked second in the Division II state coaches’ poll, improved to 8-1 and remained unbeaten in AAC play (5-0), thanks to the lonely girl in the back.

Abel, a senior and two-year starter, had not faced a shot or been tested all evening before the 22:42 mark of the second half. A perfectly played pass out of the Howland midfield sent Tigers speedster Napier Ramsey on a breakaway with no one but Abel to stop her.

For a moment, Canfield’s delicate 1-0 lead looked to be finished.

“I wasn’t really ready for it or expecting it,” said Abel, who was struggling to stay focused with the action almost entirely at the other end of the 110-yard field. “It’s anything. I just think about ... about — whenever [the ball] is not near me, I don’t really think about soccer.”

This was not that time.

Ramsey collected the bouncing pass cleanly and took one more touch at the top of the 18-yard penalty box before Abel instinctively made her charge forward.

“I just saw the ball coming and no defender was on [Ramsey] so I just came out,” Abel said, “and, I don’t know ... just got in the way.”

She smothered the oncoming ball before Ramsey could send a point-blank and potential game-tying shot to preserve Canfield’s 1-0 advantage.

“There was almost no action all game,” said Canfield coach Phil Simone, “and then to come out and make a one-on-one save like that was phenomenal.

“That was a great job on her part.”

Abel made her second and final recorded stop with 14:18 left in the game when she denied a long strike from Izzy Albrecht.

At the 13:01 mark, Cardinals forward Anita Mancini collected a loose ball — a failed Howland clearance — 20 yards from the Tigers’ net, fought off one defender who was on her right hip and slipped a plodding, yet accurate, shot past Monica Kotyuk.

“I think we picked it up a lot after [the save on Ramsey],” Abel said.

Canfield finally had its long-awaited insurance goal after both Abel and Kotyuk stood out.

“It could be the save that pumped up the girls,” Simone said. “If they see that kind of effort out of their goalkeeper ... ”

Howland is now 7-2 and hovering near a top-10 state ranking in Division I. The Tigers’ only two losses are to Canfield, a team with whom they’ve become quite familiar.

“I was pleased with this game,” said Howland coach Joe Megyesi. “I thought we hung in there and I know the score’s 2-0, but it could have gone either way.

“I think we had just as many opportunities, but they took advantage of theirs. All in all, I don’t like the loss, but I think our girls played pretty decent.”

Sophia Mancini — Anita’s older sister — gave Canfield a 1-0 lead off an assist from Bailey Fischer six minutes into the game.