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Howland’s Buckley fends off Canfield
By MIKE MCLAIN
CANFIELD
The statistical numbers looked good from the perspective of Canfield Cardinals girls soccer coach Phil Simone.
The final score, however, left Simone feeling a bit empty.
The Cardinals had the better of play during much of their match against the Howland Tigers, but outstanding work by Tigers goalkeeper Kamryn Buckley played a key role in the teams playing to a 0-0 tie Wednesday at Bob Dove Field.
Canfield had a 15-7 advantage in shots and an 8-2 edge in corner kicks. The latter edge resulted in a couple strong scoring chances in the second half, but the Cardinals weren’t able to get the ball beyond Buckley.
“I feel like we controlled play a lot of the game,” Simone said. “We had the ball on their end quite a bit. We just couldn’t click on that last sequence to get a quality shot off to beat the keeper.”
Canfield was able to keep possession near the Howland end in the waning seconds of the second half. A free kick was awarded about 27 yards out, but the Cardinals had to hurry into position and weren’t able to get a quality shot on goal as time expired.
The tie left the All American Conference Red Division standings in a state of confusion. A win by either of the two would have been crucial, but the deadlock left Canfield with a 3-0-3 Red Division record and Howland with a 2-0-4 mark in the division.
The Tigers (6-0-5 overall) staged a decent defensive effort in front of Buckley. They didn’t manage much offensively, other than a shot from left of the goal area by Ashley Chambers that was caught by Cardinals goalkeeper Olivia VanDevender.
“Yes, they outshot us, and they had the corner kicks,” Tigers coach Joe Megyesi said. “They had real good ball control. I hate those corner kicks because you never know what’s going to happen. That’s one of the things we have been working on. Our goalie came out and knocked them out. The last couple of games corner kicks hurt us, so our practice on that helped.”
The Cardinals (7-1-3 overall) had a 5-2 advantage in shots in the first half. Their best scoring chance came when Alana Petracci headed a ball that Buckley was able to run down near the front of the goal area.
Canfield’s best scoring chance in the second half came when Hannah Stein drilled a shot from in front of the goal following a corner kick. Buckley barely got a hand on the ball to send it over the crossbar. Moments later, following another corner, another prime opportunity was foiled by the Tigers.
Simone singled out the play of his defenders.
“I thought they played phenomenal on the back,” Simone said. “They kept their marks. They kept their shape. (Howland) has not really been shut out this year, so that was key.”