West Branch bests Bulldogs in regional
Trending
BEAVER TOWNSHIP -- More than a month after its first look at West Branch, Poland got a second chance to spoil the Warriors' undefeated season Tuesday evening in the Division IV regional semifinals.
However, West Branch took a commanding first-half lead and cruised the rest of the way to an emphatic 4-0 win to improve to 21-0 on the year and advance to the Region 15 final.
"I thought our team did a very nice job tonight," West Branch head coach Zach Dean said. "First off, you got to give Poland a lot of credit. They’re a good program. They have some very good players, and they battled hard. But I think our girls were hungry. They played together, they stayed together and they were able to come out with the result tonight."
What was shaping up to be the first scoring chance of the match -- a potential Bulldogs breakaway -- was called off for offsides less than four minutes after kickoff.
The missed opportunity proved particularly painful for Poland soon afterward, as Emma Klingensmith put the Warriors ahead two minutes later when she scored on a free kick just outside the penalty area.
Three minutes later, Elli Colian doubled the West Branch lead with a goal from distance that even Colian seemed surprised went into the net. After registering she scored, the sophomore leaped into the air in celebration as some Bulldog players dropped their heads in exasperation.
"That's one thing we talked about as a team: We wanted to start quick and really put them under," Dean said. "And I think us starting quick really helped set the momentum, set the tempo for the match and really helped swing the match in our favor."
The Warriors stayed on the offense, consistently testing Bulldogs goalkeeper Ella Mathew, who thwarted a promising attack by Caidee Schroeder in the 19th minute.
West Branch, though, delivered the perfect counter a few minutes later, when a stifled Poland corner kick immediately kickstarted a run from one end to the other by Colian, who finished the run with her second goal of the evening.
"I don’t think we were set and ready," Poland head coach Melissa Kopanic said. "I told them the first five [minutes], that’s what’s going to set the tone. And West Branch set the tone in the first five. And then I think after that, we were just so upset that they scored that we didn’t reset."
After last week's 3-0 district semifinal win vs. Akron Manchester, a match in which her team scored all of their goals after a scoreless first half, Kopanic admitted that Poland had proven to be a highly effective second-half team this season.
The final 40 minutes of Tuesday's match was not like many of the previous 20 matches, however.
Following 13 scoreless minutes to begin the second half, Colian created space on the edge of the penalty box, gathered the ball at her feet and solidly struck it. The result was her third goal of the night, as Matthew could not reach the ball in the top-left corner of the net despite diving.
"Every single game, we didn’t come out in the first half," Kopanic said. "Games are going to be tougher. You can’t be just a second-half team. You have to be a first-half team as well. ... We just played so slow. We finally picked it up in the last 15 minutes of the whole game. But I don’t think we just played our game. I really do not think we played our game."
With the loss, Poland's season, the first under Kopanic, finished with a 16-5 record. The Bulldogs earned their third consecutive district title Saturday with a 1-0 win vs. Beachwood.
“This is a great group of girls," Kopanic said. "They accomplished so much. I think last year they had 63 goals. I think at the end of this game, I think it was like 120. So they accomplished a lot. This group of girls is great. The four seniors, I mean, we’re going to miss them so much. They had a big impact on this whole season."
West Branch will attempt to punch its ticket to the state semifinals and move to 22-0 on the season in the Region 15 championship match against Warren JFK, which beat Cardinal Mooney 8-2 in Tuesday's other semifinal.
The Warriors and Eagles are scheduled to meet each other at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Brunswick High School. It was unclear at press time if the teams would file or be granted a petition by the Ohio High School Athletic Association to move the match to a closer site, as West Branch and Poland did when they successfully petitioned to relocate their semifinal from West Geauga to South Range.
Dean said he was unsure of where the match would be played.
“JFK, they’re always extremely well-coached,” Dean said. “They have some really good players, so I’m expecting a real tough battle and a real good soccer game.”