By Ted Waddell
ELDRED — September 20, 2002 – The Lady Yellowjackets of Eldred and the visiting Roscoe Lady Blue Devils both scored early in the first half of Wednesday’s OCIAA Division VII girls’ soccer game.
At 37:52, Eldred’s Kim French put one into the net on an assist from Jenny Haas. A tick over five minutes later, Roscoe bounced back into the fray as Codi Walters scored from about 18 yards out to make it a 1-1 contest on a beautiful afternoon designed for late summer soccer.
In the second half, Eldred (2-3, 1-2 Division VII) scored four consecutive goals – including two more by French, who earned the “hot foot” title of the match by scoring a total of three goals – to post a 5-2 victory.
Jenna Fredericks put one past the Lady Blue Devils’ keeper Heather Wood on a goal kick at 24:04. Less than a minute later, French scored her second goal on the game at 23:36 on an assist from Haas. At 17:43, Ashley Cole scored unassisted, and French scored 15-seconds later to make it a 5-1 contest.
With 43 seconds remaining on the game clock, Roscoe’s Diana Failla put a 12-yard shot past Lady Yellowjacket keeper Allison Schombs on a cross from Chrissy Rosencranse to end the game at 5-2 in favor of the Lady Yellowjackets.
Afterwards, the lady yellowjacket bench was all “abuzz” as the Eldred booters celebrated their first league win of the season. Adding to the festive mood, the Lady Yellowjackets presented Candice Martin with a bouquet of flowers in honor of her 15th birthday.
Stats: shots on goal (Eldred 9, Roscoe 8); saves (Schombs 7, Wood 7); and corner kicks (Eldred 3, Roscoe 2).
“It was a very nice, hard-fought game,” said Cliff Anderson, first year coach of the Roscoe girls’ varsity booters. “Both sides played very well.”
While noting that his team is winless so far this season, Anderson said that the Lady Blue Devils “are improving every game.”
“There’s always room for improvement,” he added.
Roscoe (0-5, 0-2 Division VII) took to the field with four players sidelined by injuries.
In the wake of their loss to Eldred, the Lady Blue Devils added another booter to the injured list.
Wood, a 16-year-old junior, is in her second season of anchoring the net for the Lady Blue Devils.
Her take on the game?
“I thought we played really well in
the first half, but in the second half we let our guard down a little bit.”
In the second half, Wood was right in the middle of a three-way collision inside the throat of the goal cage. She was inadvertently kicked in the face as teammate Susie Bowers tried to boot a shot away from the net after the ball bounced out of Wood’s hands and an Eldred attacker was rapidly closing on the goal.
“I hope we can do a little bit better in the rest of the season,” added Wood.
Eldred Coach Laura Schneider said her team has improved its triangle passing game, and Schombs is working on aggressively coming out of the net after the ball.
French, a 15-year-old sophomore, put her team over the top by scoring three goals.
“It was fun, because I love playing soccer,” she said. “I think we did really well as a team.”
Her reaction to racking up three goals in the afternoon?
“It’s not a big deal, but it was exciting to help (the team) win the game,” replied French.