Avon’s season opener at home was no picnic for the Eagles girls soccer squad.
Standing in their way of an opening night win Aug. 16 was Strongsville — with the two schools frequent opponents in recent years.
In the end, Strongsville got on the board early and posted two quick goals in the second half to best Avon, 3-0.
Strongsville coach Chloe Fadenholz credited her team’s connection with each other for the strong start that resulted in a win.
“I think that’s something we value highly is the culture of our team and everybody being a team player,” said Fadenholz. “I thought we did a really good job of moving the ball, having that confidence and composure to just play that next simple pass and keep the ball rolling. I think that’s big for our success tonight.”
Strongsville pushed the tempo earlier and got a shot on goal in the opening minutes. A leaping save by goalkeeper Ariana Vakos kept the Mustangs out of the net and showed the athleticism that made her an Akron commitment.
Not too long after as the game crept past the 15-minute mark, a cross kick from the left corner toward the goal landed around the scrum of Eagles and Mustangs. With a good touch by Julia Scally, the ball hit true from short range in the 17th minute to earn the 1-0 lead.
“I think (early) on, Strongville came out with the gas,” Vakos said. “Our team was just kind of just, first game nerves and everything. So (Coach Csiszar) thought pulling me out and get a little spark going… We started possessing the ball more but it took us a while to get into the game. We just kind of had to get under our feet, first-game jitters.”
Csiszar pulled Vakos from the goal earlier in the match and put her on the front line to provide an offensive jolt compared to last year’s game on the road. The 50-50 balls were coming down all Strongsville up to that point in the game.
“Anytime you play against Strongsville, every year it’s the same thing,” Avon coach Atilla Csiszar said. “They’re very composed in the back line, they do a really nice job moving the ball. And they understand the game, their movement off the ball was fantastic. … The movement for Strongsville was hard to defend.”
While it didn’t kick in immediately, the move of Vakos to forward started yielding results with a couple of sequences that put the Mustang defense on the back foot in the last 10 minutes of the opening half, but didn’t yield an Avon equalizer.
Avon started out strong in the second half, but another goal by Scally and Hadley Gierosky made it a 3-0 affair with their scores in the 50th and 55th minutes, respectively.
A highlight on the night for Avon was Sevilla Anderson stopping a penalty kick a few moments after letting in the second goal of the game. The junior goalie instinctively shuffled to her left and corralled the ball, which isn’t an easy task against a stout Mustangs side.
“We switched Ariana quickly because I had a sense we were losing the middle and Sevilla steps up,” Csiszar said. “She does a great job communicating with the team and that was a good save, that’s for sure.”
Avon is playing with a much younger roster than in recent years with a tough game to open the slate. The lessons learned will help later on in the season.
“I think this was honestly good for us because it gives us a hard start from the beginning,” Vakos said. “We can only get better from this because the rest of our schedule is top-tier teams. Just continue to prep us and set us up for success and everything.”
