By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
PEMBERVILLE — The Lake boys soccer team peppered Eastwood with five goals over the final 15 minutes of the first half on Wednesday en route to a 7-0 victory.
“In those 15 minutes, we shot ourselves in the foot,” Eastwood coach Curtis Smallwood said. “Ultimately, we didn’t play to the standard that I wanted them to play. This is a top team we went up against. I think they’re in the top 50 in the state. They played their game, and we just sat there and watched.”
After eight shots over the first 16 minutes for the Flyers, which included four on goal and several just wide, Travis Merrill was taken down in the box with 14:53 left in the first half.
That set up a successful penalty kick goal for Merrill, and the floodgates opened for Lake (5-0-1, 3-0 NBC).
“I think our touch was a little off,” Lake head coach Brian Reed said. “Possession and touch could have been better, but they started falling off corners and set pieces and a PK that opened it up. I’ll take them however I can get them.”
Jonathan Specht scored directly off a corner kick with 9:41 left, striking it with his left foot from the right corner. Greyson Reed then took a pass from Specht after a foul, delivering the goal with his right foot from just outside the edge of the box.
Merrill added a header with 2:04 left on a corner from Mason Sneed, who delivered it from the opposite corner as Specht’s goal.
Ethan Bradfield punched in the fifth goal with 1:34 remaining, utilizing a through ball from Merrill.
Just over 10 minutes into the second half, Reed had a shot hit the crossbar.
Eastwood (1-5-1, 0-1-1 NBC) then had back-to-back chances, including a shot from Everett Ward with 22:45 that just barely missed as Lake’s Mitchell Maguire tipped it up and over the net.
Lake responded with its final two goals, the first coming less than two minutes after Ward’s near-goal as Bradfield delivered a shot into the top left corner.
“I thought we played alright,” Reed said. “You come into a game and you never know what’s going to happen with a league game. Sometimes you think you should play better than what you are, and then you come out and play 15 minutes like we played.”
Merrill completed a hat trick with 16 minutes left, punching a loose ball in front of the net into the goal.
Eastwood’s Raif Johnson had a shot go wide right with 15 minutes left, and Lake’s Evan Barta hit the crossbar with two minutes left.
Maguire finished with five saves in goal for Lake.
“I think everybody played hard,” Reed said. “We got out of here with no injuries, and I’m happy with that.”
