Baldwin-Wallace University bound Eastwood senior Delaine Zura (7) gets her foot on the ball in the Eagles’ 1-0 win over visiting Oak Harbor Thursday. On Senior Night, the Eagles were wearing pink uniforms to bring awareness for breast cancer, which included a fundraiser for The Victory Center in Sylvania. (Lee Welch/Sentinel-Tribune)
PEMBERVILLE — Eastwood girls soccer held off a physical visiting Oak Harbor team, winning 1-0 and securing the Eagles’ sixth straight Northern Buckeye Conference championship.
The Eagles, 11-3-1 overall and 5-1 in the NBC, will share the title with Oak Harbor (12-3-1, 5-1) and Maumee (11-6, 5-1).
“This is huge. Our group of seniors doesn’t know what it’s like not be an NBC champion, so this was big for them,” Eastwood coach Julie Cross said.
“Big for all of us, of course, but we knew that we had a job to do tonight, and like I said last week, it was one game at a time, and tonight our job was to take out Oak Harbor.
“I’m so proud of these girls. Our senior class deserves this. They wanted to make this happen and the underclassmen were jumping on board.”
The Rockets won more Sandusky Bay Conference titles than any other school before leaving the league while Maumee, which handed Eastwood their only league loss, 4-3, secured their first girls soccer league title in school history.
Oak Harbor coach Ryan Lacer said his team was challenged in its first year of NBC play, but he knew the match against Eastwood would be the biggest.
“The NBC, this is our first year in here, and it’s tougher than the SBC. The NBC is a real good conference,” Lacer said.
“This was a great match tonight. Coming over to the NBC, I knew Eastwood — they are a great team.
“I knew it was going to be a battle all the way to the end. We came out, we battled, they battled, it was back and forth and it was absolutely a match.”
The game’s only goal was scored by Eastwood senior midfielder Delaine Zura, who after two successive through passes, got a handle on the ball, beat a defender, and sent an arching 20-yard shot into the right side of the net past OH senior goalkeeper Porter Gregory.
“It was a great combo in the middle,” Zura said. “We really worked out it from the back.
“It was a just a one-two, (sophomore midfielder) Piper (Sutton) to (senior midfielder) Saylor (King), and Saylor played me through and then I got it and set it back post.”
Making that combo even more special was that King is playing her first year of varsity soccer after playing three years of volleyball, while Zura, who has been playing since she was a toddler, will head to play collegiate soccer at Baldwin-Wallace next year.
“Delaine Zura played a heck of a game tonight,” Cross said. “The first time she came off (the field) tonight I said, ‘Delaine Zura, this is the game to play a good game.’
“She’s been solid all season. I think it’s been a couple games since she’s scored a goal and I think sometimes that isn’t the role we need.
“I mean, she leads to a lot of goals sometimes with her assists, and tonight she was locked in. She’s kind of our game — if the game is on the line she is someone we want the ball at her feet.”
Eastwood had a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks, out shot Oak Harbor 17-15 and the Eagles had 13 shots on net to Oak Harbor’s 10, all saves by Eastwood sophomore keeper Jordan Jensen.
“Jordan really kept us in the game,” Zura said. “She really met that next-man up mentality.
“She made some saves that really got our momentum going, too, and then our defense was just amazing. They shut down some of their key players and that was just great.”
It is not as if the Rockets did not have their chances, especially when freshman Kennedy Slater had a shot at an empty net from 15 yards out with five minutes remaining in the first half, but she somehow sent her shot over the crossbar.
Also, Oak Harbor’s defense did its job in the second half, shutting out the Eagles.
“The defense does great — they are absolutely awesome back there,” Lacer said. “I usually start two seniors, a freshman and junior back there, and we played absolutely well back there night-in and night-out.”
There was one caveat, the Rockets were so desperate to get the game-tying goal, they were whistled for six second half fouls, while Eastwood was whistled for just one. Zura said physical soccer is nothing new to her.
“We kind of keep our heads up and make sure we don’t stoop down to their level,” Zura said. “They are taking the shots but we decide that we have to just keep it going or what-not. If they take us out, we are going to get right back up and get the next one going.”
The Eagles, ranked 14th in the Division III state coaches’ poll, and the Rockets almost got to celebrate a two-way NBC title share as Lake (4-6-4, 2-4), under former Eastwood coach Megan Rutherford, had a chance to beat Maumee Thursday.
Behind a goal by senior Brianna Braatz, Lake took a 1-0 halftime lead against Maumee, but the Panthers scored three second half goals to earn their title share with a 3-1 win.
Zura said she’s glad her team did its part, and that is all she can ask.
“It’s great. We really wanted this,” Zura said. “I’ve been thinking about it all week since our last (2-0) win at Genoa, you know — next man up. We really worked hard at practices and got our mind set, we just wanted it so bad.”
Top-seeded Eastwood opens the Division III tournament on Thursday, October 19, taking on Toledo Christian on the Eagles’ pitch with kickoff set for 5 p.m.
