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Lakeview girls want back to district title game

Not much gets past the Lakeview High School girls soccer team.

The Bulldogs have scored 86 goals this year, and only given up six en route to a 14-1-1 record and the first-ever Northeast 8 championship. An season-opening 1-0 loss to Canfield and tie to Poland were the only blemishes on Lakeview’s schedule.

Sophomore goalkeeper Caitlin Kachurik, who has given up five of the opposition’s goals, has 120 saves, being the nearly impenetrable wall most in her position strive to be each and every time on the pitch.

“We have a great goal differential and that’s due to (Kachurik) this year,” said Lakeview coach Marissa DeFrancesco, whose team has received votes in the latest Division II Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association state girls poll.

This Lakeview team is led by the trio of scorers that put the mind of Kachurik and her defenders at ease, a good checks and balances that makes this Bulldogs team so successful.

Senior Regan Rosenberger leads the way with 22 goals and 14 assists. Junior Maddy Clark has 18 goals and leads Lakeview with 20 assists, but a knee injury has kept the playmaker on the sidelines. Sophomore Allie Augustine adds 17 goals and 14 assists.

“We are very well rounded,” DeFrancesco said.

The Bulldogs are the second-seeded team in the Division II Niles District, hosting the winner of tonight’s first-round game between Ursuline and Salem in a sectional bracket final Thursday at 7 p.m., at Don Richards Stadium.

Lakeview defeated fourth-seeded Niles twice this season, a Red Dragons team that won the 2015 Division II district title.

Those games against a feisty and well-coached Niles team have prepared the Bulldogs for teams like third-seeded Howland, which is in Lakeview’s side of the bracket. Top-seeded West Branch is on the other side of the D-II bracket.

Lakeview beat Niles 4-0 away from Cortland and 1-0 at home.

“It was a huge confidence boost for my girls,” DeFrancesco said of playing the Red Dragons. “We were fortunate enough to come out on top this year.”

Lakeview has made the district title game the last two seasons. The Bulldogs haven’t won a district title since 2009.

DeFrancesco said her team wants to get back to the district final for a third-straight season.

“If they can play the Lakeview way — smart, simple soccer — then we’ll get there, hopefully,” she said.

That’s the way to play Lakeview girls soccer.

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