PHOTO BY ROBERT TAYLOR
Wadsworth's Leah Runkle, left, scored twice to help lead the Grizzlies girls soccer team to a share of the Suburban League title with a 4-1 victory Wednesday over Haley Roddy (9) and Highland at Art Wright Stadium.
WADSWORTH, Ohio – The Grizzlies were striving to gain their first Suburban League girls soccer title in 10 years.
Their matchup with rival Highland on Wednesday night at Art Wright Stadium featured two of the best strikers in Northeast Ohio. Wadsworth had speedy sophomore Leah Runkle (27 goals) and Highland countered with senior Olivia Petek (23 goals).
Fifty goals between them – and they would garner lots of attention.
Wadsworth also had senior stopper Jessie Gearhart, and when Highland (9-4-2, 4-3-0) lost its 'Jessie Gearhart' in the form of senior defender Jessica Clark to a head injury with 30 minutes played, the match slipped away quickly for the visitors.
Runkle then scored two goals and assisted on a third and the Grizzlies (12-2-0, 6-1-0) pulled away for a 4-1 win to gain a share of the SL championship.
Copley and Revere both kept pace with wins on Wednesday and there will be three champions for 2011.
“I couldn’t ask for a better start for your first year coaching at the head position,” Wadsworth coach Paul Williford said. “These girls have been outstanding the whole year.”
Williford has said repeatedly Gearhart is a difference maker in the middle of the field and she man marked Petek and kept her from scoring.
“They definitely shut (Olivia Petek) down,” Highland coach Gina Fox said. “She got loose a few times and was able to play a couple of balls and dish them off to people and we weren’t able to capitalize.
“(Jessie Gearhart) is an athlete and you see her on the basketball court as well. She’s a good athlete.”
Gearhart, a mainstay for Wadsworth’s league and district championship basketball team, has returned to soccer after two years of concentration on hoops.
“I’m having fun. I love it. I’m so sad that it’s almost over,” she said. “I just wanted to have fun my senior year.”
As for marking Petek?
“I had to stay on her the whole time,” Gearhart said. “She’s was tough. She was good. She kept making runs. It was tiring. But I always had people to back me up just in case.”
The two rivals have tangled on the basketball floor as well.
“It was a battle the whole time,” Petek said. “She just has a work ethic. She’s focused and she has good fitness.”
The Grizzlies led 2-0 at half; but, at 33:55 of the second half, Highland junior Courtney Kohmann scored from 40 yards out on a direct kick just out of the reach of Wadsworth senior keeper Kailie Reed.
Thirty seconds later, Runkle answered when she beat Highland junior keeper Alexis Morrison to a 50-50 ball and then tapped it into the goal for a 3-1 lead.
“It kind of stole the momentum they had,” Williford said.
Fox agreed.
“I think that was a turning point in the game and I also think Clark getting hurt was a momentum change as well,” she said. “Losing her put a big hurt in the back.”
Runkle later added a right-to-left cross and junior Amanda Davies punched it home after it had glanced off Morrison’s gloves.
“She’s a remarkable player,” Fox said about Runkle. “She just has that knack for the goal and if you let her run through she’s going to find a way to find the back of the net.
“We struggled tracking her in the second half.”
Senior Danielle Braman scored Wadsworth’s first goal at 18:03 of the first half on a scramble following a corner.
At 10 minutes, Clark was involved in a collision and was escorted off the field. An ambulance took her to a local hospital.
At 1:40, Runkle found some daylight, ran onto a ball played into space and poked it past Morrison from near the top of the box.
Asked about a potential district semifinal matchup with No. 1 seed Medina in the Brunswick Division I bracket, Williford said, “That would be a first-year coach’s mistake.”
Williford may have not have completely understood the process and then offered his choice for a spot on the bracket. The 2-seed generally moves to the lower half of the bracket.
Davies doesn’t mind the Grizzlies’ position at all. “We’re focusing on that (Barberton-Cloverleaf winner) game right now (Saturday, Oct. 22), but if we get to Medina, we’ll be ready to play them,” she said.
In other Suburban League girls matches:
COPLEY 6, TALLMADGE 1. At Tallmadge, the Indians earned a share of the Suburban League crown with Wadsworth and Revere.
Copley (8-5-3, 6-1-0) led 5-0 after the first 20 minutes.
“We had the game in hand early,” Copley coach Wally Senk said. “The girls went out and knew what was at stake.”
Senk said the large early lead gave his team a chance to move players around in the formation and work on a few things in preparation for the postseason, which begins at home Wednesday against Brunswick.
“We wanted to focus on possessing the ball and maybe taking ourselves out of our comfort zone a little bit,” Senk said.
Sophomore Anna Haverchak and junior Amanda Revesz each scored a pair of goals for Copley, which put 17 shots on goal.
Senior Sasha Haverchak and freshman Courtney Campbell added a goal each. Sasha Haverchak added three assists, while sophomore Grace Connolly and freshman Jordan Cotleur each assisted goals.
Defensively, the Indians only allowed three shots on goal by Tallmadge (4-9-2.)
REVERE 6, GREEN 2. At Green, sophomore Marissa Milazzo scored three goals to lead Revere (10-2-3, 6-1-0) to a three-way share of the Suburban League.
Senior Amy Feher scored twice, and junior Eve Kirkendall scored once for the Minutemen.
Green’s (2-12-2, 2-5-0) goals were scored by juniors Colleen McCombs and Megan Woods.