Girls soccer battles defending state champs to the end, but fall, 2-1

Should the girls soccer teams from Avon and Bay meet again this fall, it won’t be on the playing field. In fact, it’s more likely that they will see each other on the road to Columbus.

Two-time Division III defending state champion Bay hosted Avon in a non-conference matchup Tuesday that lived up to its billing. The 2-0 Rockets scored two goals in the second half—both by junior forward Madelyn Lee—to take a 2-1 decision over the 0-1 Eagles, who return much talent from a squad that lost in overtime to eventual state champion Whitehouse Anthony Wayne in the Division II regional finals last year.

“At the end of the day, we had chances, they had chances,” said Avon coach Attila Csiszar. “They have a striker who’s really fast (Lee). But I thought we played well. There was some amazing buildup that we had where we were moving the ball. I think for our first game, you look at just the whole picture, and I thought it was good. We’ll clean up some stuff defensively, and then we’ll move forward.”

As is often the case in a matchup of strong teams, neither squad dominated play, but both had their moments. The Eagles had the upper hand for much of the first half, with freshman Delaney Moyer scoring her first career goal just over 10 minutes into the contest to give Avon a 1-0 lead. Moyer and classmate Matilda Veverka both started for the Eagles, and fellow freshman Macy Kobak also was part of the rotation.

“Delaney’s awesome,” Csiszar said. “She’s hungry. You can see that her skill level is so high. I’m looking forward to these freshmen stepping up and playing some big, big minutes, for sure.”

However, Avon and star player Sydney Thomas were unable to solve Bay’s defense for the remainder of the contest. Thomas, a junior who committed to Ohio State over the summer, had a few chances, but rarely was able to use her standout speed to her advantage.

“With every great player, you’re going to have days where you don’t score goals,” Csiszar said. “But guess what? You’re going to fill in and be that role player where you’re moving the ball. I thought Syd was given a lot of good, clean passes. She had a couple chances. But I think you’ll see as we start to gel as a team, things will open up and the play will become even faster, and she’ll get her chances, for sure.”

While Avon’s defense was relatively tight in the first half, the Rockets appeared to pick up the pace after halftime and were able to get behind the Eagles’ back line on multiple occasions. Just over 9 minutes into the second half, goalkeeper Halee Ostrander had to come out and make a brilliant save on a Bay breakaway. Less than 3 minutes later Lee tied the score when she found herself fielding a bouncing pass and was able to chip it over Ostrander, who again was forced to leave her line.

The game-winning goal came with just under 12 minutes to play on a defensive error by Avon, as a defender attempted to head the ball to Ostrander but didn’t hit it deep enough, allowing Lee to sneak in and blast it past Ostrander, who was helpless to stop the shot.

“We had some breakdowns in the back line,” Csiszar said. “We tried to head it back to the keeper and just didn’t get it there. We had our keeper coming out and our center back going for the ball, and at that point in time the timing just wasn’t there, and they just poked it in.”

Things don’t get any easier for the Eagles, as they next host Hudson on Saturday. The Explorers were the Division II state runner-up last year, falling to Anthony Wayne, 3-2, in the state final. Avon and Hudson played to a 1-1 tie last year at Hudson.