The Chagrin Falls Tigers Girls Soccer team made a great playoff run as they won 5 straight playoff games to reach the OHSAA Division IV State Semifinal Game.
More photos click here.
The Chagrin Falls Tigers Girls Soccer team made a great playoff run as they won 5 straight playoff games to reach the OHSAA Division IV State Semifinal Game.
In fact, in the playoffs on their way to the final four, the Tigers outscored opponents 22-6 and also had three shutouts.
After their second straight shutout to win the Regional Title on Nov. 2, the Tigers traveled to Sandusky, Ohio on Nov. 5 to take on the Ottawa-Glandorf Titans at Perkins High School.
The Titans were making their fourth straight appearance to the state semifinals, while the Tigers returned to the final four after two seasons.
In the State Semifinal game, the Tigers kept the Titans off the scoreboard for most of the first half. However, the Titans were able to score off a set piece in the 29th minute to take a 1-0 lead into halftime.
The Titans added a final goal with 13:39 left in the second half to claim a 2-0 victory and punch their ticket to the State Championship Game at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus.
Afterwards, senior Brix Niethammer expressed how proud she was of the effort the Tigers gave in the state semifinal game.
“I’m just super proud of our girls,” Niethammer said. “We had lots of injuries, and they had to step up to the plate, and that’s what we did. We came out here and played our absolute hardest, I’m just proud of them. It didn’t go our way, but that’s just sometimes how it goes.”
Tigers Head Coach Joe Ciuni, also expressed how proud he was of the effort the Tigers gave.
In addition, Ciuni said that the Titans showed great strength on set pieces, which is how they scored both goals.
“We weren’t able to limit those (set pieces) and they made them count,” said Ciuni.
Coming into the contest Coach Ciuni said that the Tigers were focused on trying to limit the Titans ability to hit crosses to the middle of the box, since the Titans are an excellent crossing team. Thus, the Tigers midfield tried to keep the Titans wide and limit their ability to cross the ball to an open player in the middle of the box.
Ciuni emphasized that the Tigers did a good job of limiting the Titans crosses to the middle.
However, Ciuni said the Titans were able to get too many corner kicks.
“We would have liked to have some clearances off the throw-ins instead of corner kicks at times, but the girls fought so hard to defend,” Ciuni said. “I was very proud of their effort on defending set pieces.”
Overall coach Ciuni said he was so proud of how his team played throughout the season.
“We had a challenging year again,” said Ciuni. “I put a tough schedule in front of them for a reason, to help prepare them to make this type of run and to play against those good teams and pressure. They responded so well because we took our lumps a few times during the season. And we learned from all those games and kept improving and advancing once the playoffs started.”
As Ciuni mentioned, the Tigers played an extremely difficult regular season schedule.
After starting the season, 2-5-4, the Tigers finished the season on an amazing 11-2 run.
In fact, leading the Tigers offensively to a great season included Bella Radomsky (42 points – 16 goals, 10 assists), Brix Niethammer (29 points – 12 goals, 5 assists), Mia Buno (26 points – 5 goals, 16 assists), Allie Stephenson (15 points – 6 goals, 3 assists), Lily Pawar (13 points – 5 goals, 3 assists), Aleena Aniev (12 points – 5 goals, 2 assists), and Abby Coy (11 points – 4 goals, 3 assists).
In reflecting upon the Tigers great season, senior center back Maggie Goss said that she knew the Tigers were going to do well and that playing a tough schedule was helpful to prepare the team for the playoffs.
“In Division IV we knew we were going to have a huge opportunity and I think we really capitalized on that,” said Goss. “And especially having a tough schedule, playing a lot of teams that were high DI, DII, DIII, I think that really set us up for these playoffs. Playing those tough games against tough opponents clearly strengthened our skills, and I think it was worth it.”
She added: “I knew from the beginning that this team was going to go far.”
To access our complete online news coverage!
8389 Mayfield Rd. B-5, Chesterland, OH 44026 | (440) 285-2013
Copyright Geauga County Maple Leaf. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
Website Designed & Developed by Company 119
