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Lakeview upsets Hubbard in PKs

Staff photo / Brian Yauger The Lakeview Bulldogs celebrate their PK-shootout win over Hubbard on Monday night.

HUBBARD — It took longer than 80 minutes to decide the winner of Lakeview and Hubbard’s matchup Monday. In fact, an extra 30 minutes wasn’t enough to break the 2-2 stalemate.

It came down to a round of penalty kicks, with the Bulldogs taking a 4-2 edge on PKs, to top Hubbard for the first time this season and advance to the next round of the postseason.

A big part of that was Lakeview’s freshman goalkeeper Ava Hipple, who made multiple impressive saves to stop the Hubbard attackers throughout the game.

“Right now I’m just proud,” Bulldogs coach Marissa Brown said. “We’ve come a long way all season doing little things better one step at a time and tonight, it all came together. They deserve this. Hubbard is an excellent team. Obviously we were neck and neck going into double overtime and then PK’s and they’re coached by an amazing coach, who has been a mentor of mine. It’s a really nice quality win for the team and a great way to start this postseason.”

Bulldogs junior Lexi Busefink got the team on the board at the midway point of the first half. After a season that has given their team plenty of struggles, Busefink is starting to think they’ve hit a turning point.

“I think in the past games, we’ve been missing the last step to get there,” she said. “This game we really pulled through and it feels good to finally pay off.”

It was senior Marysa Chuey who got the Eagles on the board both times, scoring two minutes into the game, then potting a second goal midway in the second half.

Hubbard caps off its season with an 8-8 record. Injuries hit the team hard this season, but Eagles coach Josh MacMillan is happy with the effort and growth his team has shown.

“The first time we played them we were down two or three starters and we got some of those girls back, but then we had lost one of our better players for the year,” MacMillan said. “That’s probably been the biggest thing was trying to just wait to get healthy. We had a lot of freshmen that just stepped up and tried hard. Everyone did what they could in terms of ability in terms of effort.

“Ultimately, in a game like this, we’ve all been kind of battling the same types of things. Congratulations to Lakeview. They had a really nice game plan.”

The Eagles graduate four seniors, including Chuey, who according to MacMillan, had invaluable leadership for the team this season.

“I’ve told her and I told her parents that I’d find it hard to believe that I had a kid that worked harder than her,” he said. “She’s always going to be one of those special kids to me that I’ll probably never forget.”

This season hasn’t been easy for either team. Both have battled injuries and adversity along the way. Lakeview (5-9-3) describes itself as a rebuilding team and getting a win like this is a perfect block to keep building upon.

The Bulldogs advance to the sectional bracket final where they’ll take on the third-seeded Streetsboro Rockets. While it’s an uphill battle, the team is excited to live another day.

“I feel great, I hope we can continue playing,” Hipple said. “We just need to continue our hard work.”

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