BOB ETTINGER
CONNEAUT — Speed and aggression can be gamebreakers. At least if applied with the right touch.
The Pymatuning Valley girls soccer team found the mix in beating Conneaut, 3-1, on Tuesday at Municipal Stadium.
“I thought we played very well offensively,” PV coach Bob Blake said. “We continued to pressure and attack all the time. And now we’re playing smarter.
“(Taking advantage of our speed) was very important for us because our team is only OK. We do have (Nicole) Virostek and (Tessa) Kellar up front and they have real good speed. As long as our midfielders send the ball through to spaces, we have an opportunity to use that speed. But speed can only carry you so far.”
The combination of speed and pushing the ball through to space gave the Lakers (3-3-1, 0-1-1 in Northeastern Athletic Conference) a 2-1 lead with just seconds left in the first half.
“They won, plain and simple,” Conneaut coach Casey Dick said. “Usually, when you get to the ball first, you win it.”
Brooke Monnolly sent a ball up through a seam to a streaking Nicole Virostek, who punched it into the net with 16 seconds left in the half.
“I had the whole midfield open,” Monnolly said. “I could’ve taken it myself. Nicole had a good run and she had a lot of space, so I got it to her. I knew she was fast enough to beat people on grass.
“I can see from the midfield whether or not there’s space. It seemed like a good attack.”
“I think that I knew I was going to get there,” Virostek said. “It was a good pass. I was confident in my speed.”
The goal shifted momentum in favor of the Lakers heading into the break.
“That was a big goal,” Blake said. “We had a penalty kick (earlier in the half) and an opportunity to go up two goals and put a lot more pressure on them. We were unsuccessful on the penalty kick and they came back to score a goal and tie the game.
“That goal with 16 seconds left was big. It carried momentum into halftime and into the second half for us. We’ve been a better second-half team all year. Having the lead going into halftime hasn’t happened many times.”
“It’s just been the same thing all season,” Dick said. “We don’t finish games and we don’t attack when we have the chances to.
“We see that a lot — one-on-one with the goalie. That’s what happens when we get flat on defense, we aren’t there on our goal-side marks.”
PV added an insurance goal in the ninth minute of the second half. It was nearly a mirror-image of the previous goal.
Virostek, once again streaking up the field, took a pass from Tessa Kellar and planted it in the net.
“I knew she would beat the girl (to the ball),” Kellar said. “By halftime, we knew their speed and how much faster we were. Her and I are fast and I knew she could beat (the defender). She’s got good skills with her feet and good technique.”
The Spartans (0-6-1) had a number of chances to score in the final 20 minutes, but just couldn’t capitalize.
“We have so many chances to score and we just don’t go ahead and finish,” Dick said.
“We’re just not aggressive. We have one girl that’s really aggressive and everyone else just stands and let’s her do it.”
The Lakers took a 1-0 lead when Kellar broke away and scored in the 22nd minute of the first half. They missed a chance to go ahead 2-0 when a penalty kick sailed wide in the 25th minute.
Conneaut evened the score in the 30th minute and briefly shifted momentum back even. Rebecca Williams made a long pass up the field to Holly Spees, who fed Maggie Boyle for the score.
“That should be important, but that didn’t seem to be the case,” Dick said. “It should be a big momentum shift, but it wasn’t.”
