Lake senior Brianna Braatz (10), right, moves the ball up the pitch against Napoleon’s Josie Morales (10), left, during the first half of a sectional semifinal soccer match against on Tuesday at Lake Community Stadium. Lake defeated Napoleon 5-0. (Scott W. Grau/Sentinel-Tribune)
MILLBURY — Lake senior forward Brianna Braatz had a three-goal hat trick in leading the Flyers to a 5-0 Division II girls soccer tournament win over visiting Napoleon at Lake Community Stadium Tuesday.
Braatz’s first goal, which came with 23:17 remaining in the first half and provided Lake a 1-0 lead, gave her the single season school record for goals scored.
After finishing her hat trick, she has 33 goals on the season, breaking Ava Ayers’ mark of 30 goals.
“It feels good, but I could not have done it without getting the balls placed to me and having my teammates passing it to me and getting the assists the whole time,” Braatz said.
“I’m really thankful to them because I definitely could not have done it without them. I know this season, (freshman midfielder) Brooke Wiley has assisted me a lot.
“I’ve had (freshman forward) Kadie (Bomer) assist me a lot, and (junior forward) Audrey Snowdy has assisted me a lot, so I’ve definitely had people behind me on these goals.”
Three minutes and 28 seconds into the second half, Braatz beat a defender and got her second score, and then with 21:28 remaining she completed her hat trick.
Lake coach Megan Rutherford had to strategize against her while she was coaching at Eastwood, but now she’s happy that Braatz is on her side.
The speedy Braatz, who also set a single game school record scoring six goals against Otsego this season, is verbally committed to play soccer at NCAA Division III Heidelberg University, but the sprinter hopes to run track, too.
“You can tell she has put in the work,” Rutherford said. “Having spent years coaching against her, it’s been a pleasure coaching her. She’s a hard worker, she is competitive.
“She wants what is best for the team. The records are secondary. She’s very dynamic. She can take multiple players on. She just draws defenders to her.
“Now, we are starting to get other players who are starting to get that same aggressive, competitive mindset around the goal,” Rutherford continued.
“Bri does a fantastic job, she works hard in practice, she’s a good captain, she holds people accountable, but she leads in a kind way. She’s demanding but there is balance.”
Lake, which improves to 5-6-5 overall, dominated every aspect of the game, outshooting Napoleon 37-0, including 26-0 in shots on goal, and the Flyers had eight corner kicks to Napoleon’s zero.
Lake junior goalkeeper Lauren Tobias not only did not have to make a save to get her clean sheet, she needed just one goal kick to clear and just twice had to punt the ball.
Meanwhile, Napoleon junior keeper Jillian Richard had 22 saves, including some athletic stops to keep it a 1-0 game at halftime. Richard also had to clear 32 combined goal kicks and punts.
Lake’s fourth goal came off a corner kick by freshman defender Savannah Little which Wiley found perfectly, one-timing a header into the net with 17:40 remaining in the game.
Over 12 minutes later, Braatz had a run at the net looking for her fourth goal, but her shot hit the post. Freshman forward Kadie Bomer was there for the rebound and score with 5:05 remaining in the game. Multiple scorers is what Rutherford likes to see.
“This is our second game this season where we’ve had three different goal scorers in one game, and that is what we are looking for just to take some pressure off, to make teams have to game plan around multiple people,” Rutherford said.
Getting assists in the win were Braatz, Snowdy, Little, and freshman forward Anahi Rios.
Lake advances to take on Northern Buckeye Conference co-champion Oak Harbor (11-4-1) on the Rockets’ pitch this Saturday at noon with the winner advancing to the district semifinals. The Rockets shut out the Flyers, 3-0, in an NBC match this season.
Braatz and Rutherford are hoping the Flyers can be more dangerous than people expect during the postseason.
“I think a lot of people doubted us at the beginning of the season, but definitely with coach Megan, we’ve definitely come really far, and I’m really proud of how we ended up,” Braatz said.
Rutherford added, “We’ve had quite a few injuries. We have most of our roster back, but tonight, unfortunately, one was sick or else we would have had everybody back.
“At the beginning of the year we were probably playing with 12, 13 due to COVID, injuries. We just got our goalie back a game or so ago, so it seems like we’re finally getting people back at tournament time.
“So, we never could quite get in a rhythm. Just trying to grow and get better every day. It seems like one or two people would drop just as another would come back.
“Finally, we’re starting to get in a little bit of a rhythm, and you can see on the field how they are connecting and there is a little more dynamic creativity to their play. They are having fun out there and that is what we want.
“I want them to play free with joy and then you can see the creativity, their aggression, which kind of just takes the chains off and let them go. Then, that is when I get out of the way and encourage them on.”
Although Napoleon did not get a shot, they did get deep into the 18-foot box, but Lake defenders were always present to clear.
Napoleon concludes its season 2-14-1, but the Wildcats had big wins this season over Fremont Ross and Springfield. Despite key injuries, coach Chris Speiser has seen growth.
“It’s heart — lots of heart,” Speiser said. “Coming back after losing nine seniors, seven and a half of them were starters, we lost a lot and didn’t really replace it with a lot. Our numbers are kind of lower, and two of our best players are down to knee injuries.
“(Sophomore defender) Emma Reynolds was on career ending crutches early in the season and we lost (freshman midfielder) Carmen (Campos) a few weeks back, and games like this are where you really miss those people.
“But the rest of them kind of stood up, got a lot of experience, and they are always around, and hopefully we’ll be back next year to build on what they started this year. They’ve just got tons of heart and I’m super proud of them all.”
