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Second-seeded ’Dogs have their day vs. Irish
By Brian Dzenis
POLAND
It wasn’t Poland’s most efficient win, but the Bulldogs will live with it.
The No. 2-seed Bulldogs in the Division II district tournament ousted No. 7 seed Urusline, 3-1, on Saturday, but when considering how much Poland dominated the shots, number of corner kicks and overall possession, there were probably a few more goals to be had.
“We just have to clean things up, our touches have to be cleaned up, when we get chances, we have to make sure we finish more efficiently, defensively, maybe not leaving so many gaps, but I was pretty happy with how we played overall,” Poland coach Brian Garcar said. “Maybe I wasn’t happy with the number of chances that we had that we weren’t finishing, but I feel pretty good about where we are at.”
Poland (11-1-5) outshot Ursuline 17-3 and had 18 corner kicks to the Irish’s two. To Ursuline’s credit, the Irish made the most of what little time they had in Poland’s half of the field when P.J. Conway scored with a header on a corner kick in the first half to give his team the early lead.
With the loss, the Irish failed to reach the lofty heights they did last year, when the team made a run to the district final and lost to South Range, but that run happened while Ursuline was a Division III team.
“This year, the school ended up with a few extra people so we ended up in [Division II], so we’re playing at a different level, you have the Hubbards, the Polands, Champion, Mooney and Canfield so that changes things up a bit,” Ursuline coach Roy Schmidt said. “We played strong competition, we played out at Cathedral Prep and some of these teams are real powerful and you might lose a game, but you get a lot of preparation for the postseason.”
The Irish finished at 8-8-2 in their first year in Division II.
A goaltending gaffe allowed Poland to equalize three minutes after Conway’s goal.
Poland’s Marcus Trevis fed a streaking Matt Holsinger and when Ursuline’s goalie ran out to silde to try and stop Holsinger, but he whiffed, leaving the senior with no one between him and the goal. After the goal, an Ursuline defender pushed Holsinger to the ground from behind.
“I didn’t really care, I was just happy we scored and tied it up,” Holsinger said. “I was just looking for that next goal.”
The game became decidedly more chippy after that push, with some of the Poland frustration showing with Trevis and Joseph Shields each being assessed a yellow card later on in the second half and Schmidt even appeared to get a warning from officials on the sideline.
“I don’t know that it was [an angry atmosphere], but it was getting intense and that fueled us to play better,” Holsinger said.
Said Schmidt: “I really don’t want to discuss that part of it, I like my license the way it is.”
Trevis netted the game-winner in the second half after a deflected cross went into his path and in the final 10 minutes of the contest, Trey Medvec ruined any chance of Ursuline equalizing. Given how well Poland controlled the game in the first half, there wasn’t much need for adjustments.
“We wanted to continue with our game plan,” Garcar said. “We like to take it outside and cut back in and get a lot of numbers in the box.
“Ursuline did a good job containing us even when we were getting a few chances and it took us a while, but once we got the second one, we felt comfortable and the third one followed.”