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Girls Soccer: Bexley 5, River View 0
Nov 06, 2009
By PAUL BATTERSON
ThisWeek Staff
ZANESVILLE -- After not scoring in the run of play in its last two games, the Bexley High School girls soccer team scored early and often in its 5-0 rout of Warsaw River Valley in a Division II regional semifinal Wednesday.
"It was so important to get a jump on them early," said junior forward Abby Fagin, who scored off a Jill Clark assist 4 minutes, 39 seconds into the game. "(Coach Scott Dempsey) always tells us before every game that if we come out strong and put it away early it makes things so much easier."
Bexley improved to 18-0-3 overall and moved one win a way from matching a school-record 19 wins. The Lions will face Middletown Bishop Fenwick in a regional final Saturday.
Five players contributed to Bexley's scoring. Senior midfielder Katie Grady scored off a Justine Foster assist with 20:06 left in the first half. In the second half, sophomore midfielder Sara Prater, senior midfielder Leah Levey and junior forward Charlotte Myers scored.
Bexley's start seemed to unsettle River Valley, which was ranked ninth in the final state poll. The Black Bears finished the year at 17-2-2 overall. Bexley was No. 1 in the state poll.
River Valley had 14 shutouts, holding 12 of its last 14 opponents scoreless.
"(After beating Grandview 1-0 in a district semifinal and Jonathan Alder 2-1 in a district final on set pieces), we talked about the importance of getting goals in the run of play and scoring in the first five or six minutes," Dempsey said. "Obviously the type of defense they play is a team style of defense. We needed to find seams in that defense."
The Lions had lost in regional semifinals the last two years, falling Bishop Fenwick, the eventual state champion, 2-0 last year and to Hamilton Badin 1-0 in 2007.
Fenwick improved to 12-3-5 after defeating Chillicothe Zane Trace 6-0 in a regional semifinal last Wednesday. Bexley tied Fenwick at 1 on Sept. 12. The Falcons, who haven't allow a goal in their first four tournament games, have seven shutouts in their last eight games. The Falcons were ranked fifth in the state poll.
"Fenwick has very good competitors and I feel like they are a lot like us in the tempo that they play the game," Fagin said. "They're really strong so we have to go out just as strong or stronger."
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