Eagles take 2-1 girls soccer victory over Chagrin Falls

After Monday’s 2-1 victory over visiting Chagrin Falls, Avon’s girls soccer team had won four matches in a row to up its record to 4-2.

However, coach Attila Csiszar had a long team meeting afterward, followed by another meeting with the team captains.

“I think we went into panic mode,” he said. “It was sloppy. Touches were off. Movement was kind of stale today. It was frustrating.”

What made it particularly frustrating was that the Eagles were coming off perhaps their best performance of the season, a 2-1 victory Saturday over Division I powerhouse Strongsville, a program that has won five big-school state titles and defeated Avon last year, 3-2.

“We just couldn’t finish (against Chagrin Falls),” Csiszar said. “I don’t know. We just came off a game with Strongsville where we were going toe-to-toe with them, and it was a great game, and we ended up beating them. And then we came here. They packed in the box, and it was hard for us to score.”

The Eagles dominated possession of the ball, but for the most part, they were unable to complete the possession and couldn’t connect on the pass that would have resulted in a shot on goal.

One exception was the goal by Avon’s Delaney Moyer that opened the scoring. The freshman passed the ball to Sydney Thomas and then darted toward the goal. Thomas sent the ball right back to Moyer on a classic 1-2 combination play that resulted in Moyer facing Chagrin goalkeeper Harper Stewart one-on-one. Moyer easily put the ball into the nets for a 1-0 lead with 12 minutes, 56 seconds left in the first half.

“That was fantastic,” Csiszar said. “I mean, that combination was a one-touch play, and that’s what we’ve been working on, the speed of play. How fast can we move the ball? They moved the ball in a one-touch, and it was beautiful.”

A light rain picked up during halftime and came into play in the second half. Paige Millet gave Avon a 2-0 lead with 23:49 to play, sending a bouncing ball toward Stewart, who attempted to short-hop the shot but had it deflect off her knee and into the goal. Several times Stewart had trouble handling the wet ball, but this was the only time it resulted in a goal.

“Paige is fantastic,” Csiszar said. “She controls the middle, the tempo of the game. She’s relaxed, and she looks to combine with other players. Also, Sam Heun, our center mid, did a great job winning every 50-50 ball in the air. That was good stuff from them.”

Prior to the game, Csiszar said he hoped to give his bench players a lot of playing time against the Tigers. Avon has played a very difficult schedule thus far, and all the close games have given the bench players very few minutes. Millet’s goal gave the Eagles some breathing room, but Chagrin cut the margin in half with 6:54 to play, and Csiszar had to put some starters back in to preserve the victory.

When asked if he was able to get more players onto the field, Csiszar said, “We were to a degree. I mean, not the minutes I wanted to play them, but we got a majority of our bench into the game. But I was hoping they could get more playing time.”

The Eagles will take the field again on Wednesday when they host Southwestern Conference foe Olmsted Falls.