PERRYSBURG — In a battle of two state-ranked Division I girls soccer teams, Perrysburg sophomore midfielder Camille Francis scored twice and had an assist as the Yellow Jackets defeated Anthony Wayne, 4-1, at Steinecker Stadium Wednesday.
No. 5 Perrysburg stays unbeaten at 7-0-1 and moves to 4-0 in the Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division, while No. 13 AW falls to 6-3-2 and 3-1.
The two teams will play one more time on AW’s soccer field in both teams’ final regular season game on Saturday, October 14 at 3 p.m.
Perrysburg controlled 65% of the possessions in the first half, but that number went even higher in the second half as the Generals struggled to push their offense past midfield.
Perrysburg coach Jorge Diaz says possession is the name of the game, and the Yellow Jackets proved it Wednesday.
“That was one of the things that we work on — to win the possessions in the game, we are going to be the winner, most likely, at the end of the game,” Diaz said.
Perrysburg outshot AW, 20-7, and the Jackets had 12 shots on goal to the Generals’ five. Without her midfield controlling possession, Francis knows she wouldn’t have had her big scoring night.
“I think our midfield did great winning 50/50s,” Francis said. “Obviouisly, Anthony Wayne is great in the air, and they have really strong players, and we I think we just took them up to the challenge.”
However, Perrysburg’s speed up front was also on full display as the front line players were beating AW defenders, even when they had to carry the ball with them.
The Jackets have so much depth, they can take advantage of it and wear teams down.
“That’s what we have is six forwards that we rotate because they are going to have the same defenders defending on them and we send them fresh,” Diaz said. “We have lots of speed and it’s very tough for the other team. We love our team.”
Francis added, “I think our speed is an important factor in NLL play.”
However, it was AW that got on the board first. After a Perrysburg mistake on the defensive end gave up possession, a shot by junior Addy Williams was saved by Perrysburg junior keeper Elizabeth Motter.
AW senior Lauren Abodeely was there for the rebound and scored just two minutes and eight seconds after the opening kickoff.
“A dream start, right? I thought we came out the first 10 minutes and we got a goal and almost had another,” AW coach Lori Williams said.
“I thought we had a real good intensity, I thought our energy was really good. We had a dream start and then gave up one right around 18 minutes to go.”
AW held onto their 1-0 lead until a Perrysburg throw-in just 40 yards from the net led to two poorly attempted clearing attempts by the AW defense, and the ball floated over to Francis.
With her left foot, Francis one-timed a shot into the right side of the net, beating sophomore goalkeeper Kaity Carr with 18:09 remaining in the opening half.
“I saw a bad touch from a defensive player, so I said, ‘This is my chance. I’ve got to hit that in. We need a goal right away, like right now,’” Francis said.
The game remained tied at one goal apiece until an AW foul led to a free kick 30 yards from net by Perrysburg junior midfielder Grace Lagendonk.
Francis, although heavily marked, was at the other end of Lagendonk’s serve, and again Francis one-timed a shot into the right side of the net with 1:29 remaining in the half, giving the Yellow Jackets their first lead.
“I think it was a great ball and I just thought I’d sneak in there and get in the mix, and it went in,” Francis said.
It took over 33 minutes of the second half to score again, but with 16:56 remaining, Francis, Lagendonk, and freshman striker Elyza Boyd were bearing down on Carr, each taking a lane.
Francis beat a defender into the right corner and sent a cross left that was met by Boyd, who scored to give Perrysburg a 3-1 lead and two-goal cushion.
“I just rattled it out,” Francis said. “She’s a great defender, she was poaching on me and everything, but I just kept working and I crossed it in and it (Boyd’s shot) went in.
Perrysburg junior forward Eliza Williamson scored the Jackets’ fourth goal on an assist from junior forward Alexis Kaufold.
Williams promised her Generals will be ready when the two teams meet again in mid-October, just before tournament play starts. After the loss, she chalks it up to a lesson learned.
“I think every time we get to play together we are going to learn something about ourselves,” Williams said. “I think Perrysburg is a fantastic team and we knew that coming in.
“We knew we were going to have to play a very good game with very few mistakes. We unfortunately made a few mistakes that ended up costing us.
“But ultimately I’m super proud of the girls’ fight. I thought we really pressed for a goal to try and get get score to flip and got caught (on the defensive end) a couple times late. I never fault the girls for chasing the game and getting after it.”
Motter had six saves for the Yellow Jackets and Carr, who had eight saves, was filling in for injured starter Addie Beil, a junior.
“Kaity did a nice job for a sophomore to come into this kind of a game,” Williams said. “She made some saves look easy and I think she made some other big saves. We are getting a lot of good communication from her so we’re real proud of her.”
