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South Range girls defeat Ursuline, 3-1
Lindstrom, Yanek and Smith help South Range top Ursuline for second consecutive season
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
Casey Lindstrom scored two goals, Caragyn Yanek added one and Morgan Smith rejected six Ursuline shots to lead South Range to a 3-1 win over the Fighting Irish in girls soccer Monday at YSU’s Farmers National Bank Field.
It was the second straight win in as many seasons by South Range (5-2) over Ursuline (3-3) on the YSU campus.
Lindstrom now has 13 goals this season.
“On the first goal, Ursuline had the ball and I was able to time their pass. After intercepting it, I dribbled through the defense as was able to place it in the lower left corner,” Lindstrom said. “On the second goal, Makenzie Ferenchak had the ball in the middle, got it to me and that time I was able to place it in the lower right corner.”
It took the Raiders just 66 seconds to get on the board as Lindstrom notched her unassisted goal.
Ursuline’s Adrianna Quattro then tied the game at 1 just 53 seconds later with an assist from Kelsey Bryant off the game’s first free kick.
Yanek’s goal at 34:55 gave the Raiders a 2-1 advantage and a lead they would not surrender the remainder of the way.
“I was moving toward the back of the post and hoping for a clean pass from Casey,” Yanek said. “She’s an amazing passer, hit me with the pass perfectly and I was able to sneak it into the left side of the goal.”
Last season, the Raiders were called for seven off-side penalties despite winning by the same 3-1 count.
Correcting those penalties was the key, according to South Range head coach Paul Lindstrom.
“Ursuline is very aggressive defensively, playing up top and looking for off-side from their opponent. Tonight, we were looking to control the middle of the field and just make short diagonal passes,” he said. “We didn’t have any off-side calls this year with the key being we were able to keep pressure on their defense.”
He lauded the efforts of daughter Casey, as well as those of Yanek and Smith.
“Casey is a great player who works really hard. I might be a little harder on her, but no more so than she already is on herself,” Lindstrom said. “Caragyn is a pitcher on our softball team and this is her first year on the soccer team. She brings great athletic skills to our team while Morgan is also in her first season of playing soccer, also playing basketball and softball. She has excellent ball skills, is learning the technical aspect of the game and playing really well right now for us.”
Smith said her first season has been fun thus far, but added that she is still a work in progress.
“I just lost track of the ball on their goal. Give credit to my defense in front of me because they always help me out,” Smith said. “I’ve learned a lot just seven games into the season and my defense continues to help me out each and every game.”
Lindstrom rounded out the scoring with her second goal of the game at 26:27 off of a Lillian Kimpel assist.
“It was a defensive struggle in the first half. We made our adjustments at halftime and the girls are really coming into their own right now,” Ursuline head coach Roy Schmidt said. “Tonight, the space between my midfielders and defenders was too open in our attack and their counter attack proved to be our undoing.”
Ursuline goalie Gigi Hitchcock, a freshman, also rejected six shots.