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Short-handed Niles girls win war of attrition vs. Fitch
By MIKE mclain
AUSTINTOWN
The Niles McKinley Red Dragons and Fitch Falcons are literally limping to the finish line of the regular season.
Dragons coach Sam Reigle played without six starters in a 3-0 shutout of the Falcons in an All American Conference girls soccer match Wednesday night. Falcons coach Tex Martin is working on his third goalkeeper and nearly matched Reigle in not having his full complement of starters.
Both coaches hope to have most of their starters back when the tournaments open next week. For one night, however, Reigle liked what he saw of the wounded Dragons.
“I’m very proud of the effort of the team, stepping up and playing a good game,” Reigle said.
The Dragons (8-6-2) are seeded third in the Division II district. They will play the winner of the South Range-Southeast game Oct. 20. Fitch, which has an 11-4 record, is seeded third in the Division I district and will meet the winner of the Boardman-Lake game Oct. 20.
Niles was led offensively by sophomore midfielder Jaycee Ward, who scored a pair of goals. Her final goal came on a shot from about 90 feet with 21 seconds remaining in the game.
Ward gave the Dragons a 2-0 lead at the 8:15 mark of the first half when she scored on a shot of about 24 feet and in front of Fitch keeper Lucy Vitullo. Hannah Ward did a good game of maintaining possession along the right wing before delivering a centering pass into traffic. Jaycee Ward was able to punch it in from there.
“She had a nice game,” Reigle said. “She played most of the first half as a defensive-holding mid, and then in the second half we dropped her to the back. She had some nice runs out of the back and a nice finish late.”
After the Dragons opened a 1-0 lead at the 39:03 mark of the first half, Reigle could be heard yelling “don’t let up” to his players.
“We’ve had some inconsistency with the accumulation of some of the injuries we’ve had,” Reigle said. “We’ve had trouble scoring. We’ve been very strong defensively. It was great for our kids this week to be able to put together two games in a row where we could get some quality goals against two quality teams (Fitch and Hubbard).”
The Falcons controlled play in the second half as the Dragons played with a defensive mindset. Fitch had a few decent looks at keeper Vada Flannery but wasn’t able to get the ball by her.
“Very frustrating,” Martin said. “We weren’t passing the ball well. When you’re missing key players, it’s hard to get things started up the field. We played a lot of kick ball in the beginning. In the second half we controlled the game, but we couldn’t get a shot on goal. They just packed it in.”
Niles will try to defend the district title it captured last season. The Dragons lost in the regional semifinals to eventual state champion Akron Hoban.
“A lot of respect for our opponents,” Reigle said. “We still feel that if we can get healthy, we feel like we can build off the momentum of this week. We feel we have a good opportunity going forward.”