ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP —
It was a chilly day Tuesday afternoon, but the Pymatuning Valley Lakers braved the elements to defeat the Edgewood Warriors 1-0 on the road.
The Lakers (5-3) started off the game with quite an offensive surge on the Warriors defense, keeping Edgewood’s defenders on their toes.
PV was able to get past midfield deep near the Edgewood goal several times the first half. This was thanks to the passing of the Lakers defenders to their midfielders and forwards, moving the ball forward at a good pace.
Still, despite this good offensive pressure by the Lakers, the game remained 0-0 at the half.
“Well one thing that concerned me in the first half, we had more opportunities than in the second half,” PV coach Bob Blake said. “(We) hit the crossbar, post, shot wide.”
As for Edgewood (2-6), despite having to play a lot more defense than offense in the first half, they hustled and were able to keep the score tied. Sophomore goalie Jillian Dick did an outstanding job with a variety of challenging shots coming her way.
The second half rolled on, and PV was able to break open the game with the only score of the day, a shot up the middle from junior midfielder Geena Gabriel, giving her Lakers a 1-0 advantage.
“Only one good offensive attack,” Blake said of his team’s second half offensive efforts compared from the first half’s action. “Later in half we had some flurries,”
“We knew coming in Gabriel is a good player,” Edgewood coach Vince Peluso
said. “We tried to mark her, but we lost track of her there and she made us pay. Give her credit.”
The game was a back and forth contest throughout, with Edgewood battling. The Warriors had a lot of good offensive possessions late, but were not able to get that elusive score, although came up close a number of times just being slightly off.
“I didn’t think we had very good depth,” Peluso said of his team’s offensive efforts. “Most of our chances were breakouts from long balls. That’s not how we want to play. We just didn’t keep our shape and move the ball the way I know we can.”
But the Warriors did improve as the game went on, especially later in the second half.
“I wasn’t entirely happy with how much room we gave No. 8 (Warriors junior midfielder Zhen-Zhen Eidens),” Blake said. “(We) marked tighter in second half, she’s fairly skilled.”
Blake was pleased with performance of his sophomore goalie, Katie Wright, who racked up 14 saves.
“(I was) happy with our goalie,” Blake said.
Edgewood’s defensive efforts, including their goalie’s also helped keep them always in the game.
“We have two seniors in Carrie (Pozum) and Jess (Reed) back there and they do a nice job keeping things together” Peluso said of his senior defenders. “Abbie Schlick is an experienced and talented sophomore who does well as a defender, too. The obviously Juliana Kosik at stopper is a great presence for us.”
Peluso was also pleased with the effort he got in goal from Dick.
“Jillian is only a sophomore, but she did a heck of job today,” he said. “This was her best game yet in my opinion, and she has had some good ones. She kept us in this game tonight. I was really pleased with her performance.”
Dick finished the game with 16 saves.
Velotta is a freelance writer from Concord Township.
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