Eastwood’s Piper Sutton rises to head in a corner kick with 4:32 remaining in Saturday’s 3-1 district championship game win over Oak Harbor. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
GENOA — Piper Sutton headed in a pair of corner kicks to give the Eastwood girls soccer team a come-from-behind 3-1 win over Oak Harbor in a Division IV district championship game at Genoa High School on Saturday.
“I was just so excited because (corners are) something we work really hard on as a team and we know it’s a good opportunity for us to score on,” Sutton said. “When we’re able to get down there and earn it, it’s just so exciting.
“Kennedy Ameling played a great ball in, both times, and I was able to get on it. You could see it. We were all just so excited. It was a great moment, both of them.”
With the victory, the Eagles (9-8-3) advance to the regional semifinals in Shelby against Hubbard (11-6-3) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
“I think we continue to believe in each other,” Eastwood coach Julie Cross said. “Things haven’t seemed to go our way all season. We knew that we were a good team, and we had to believe that we were a good team.”
The victory has added satisfaction for Eastwood as they had a seven-game stretch where they went 1-4-2 late in the season, but they have rebounded to win four straight, which includes three postseason victories.
On top of that, Eastwood has back-to-back triumphs over the co-champs in the Northern Buckeye Conference, delivering revenge for tough outcomes in the regular season.
“It really means a lot for us because as a team we’ve kind of felt that this season has been a little more challenging than maybe some seasons we’ve experienced in the past,” Eastwood senior Riley Burtchin said. “Our whole mindset has been that none of that matters coming into tournament time. We just need to focus on putting our heads down and working hard.
“When we beat Lake (in the semifinal), that was a really good confidence boost. We told ourselves that we’re going to come out here and do the same thing, set the tone as a team, settle in and prove that we can play as a team. We can be a great team and our record doesn’t really matter when it comes to tournament time.”
Oak Harbor (12-3-4), which defeated Eastwood 2-1 on Oct. 1, struck first on Saturday.
After Sutton and Karissa Nelson each had shots on goal for the Eagles over the first five minutes, Effie Schulte gave the Rockets a 1-0 lead just under 10 minutes in.
Nelson, who scored the game-winning goal in the district semifinal win over Lake, responded quickly for Eastwood, striking the tying goal just three minutes and 24 seconds later.
“I think we tried to kind of figure out what happened to lead to that goal, and we wanted to fix it for the next time because we knew we weren’t going to let it go,” Sutton said. “We weren’t going to give up until the end. We were going to keep fighting. We were able to clean up those mistakes, came back and fought as hard as we could.”
Burtchin and Nelson had free kicks sail wide in the 16th and 20th minutes, and Oak Harbor missed a wide-open chance to potentially take the lead in front of the goal with 7:33 left.
That’s when Sutton provided some heroics, heading in a corner from Ameling with 3:05 left. The opportunity came after some confusion as to whether it was a corner or goal kick.
The Rockets had a shot off-frame with less than 10 seconds left as Eastwood took a 2-1 lead into the break.
Similar to Oak Harbor late in the first half, Eastwood missed a golden opportunity for a goal three minutes into the second half.
The Eagles then had three of the game’s next four shots, and after that, Oak Harbor had a pair of off-frame looks before Jordan Jensen saved a shot with 19:43 left.
Each keeper prevented a dangerous opportunity in the 70th minute.
Oak Harbor’s final shot attempt of the game went high with nine minutes left, and Sutton had an off-frame look with 5:53 left.
After all that, Eastwood stalled their way into another corner kick, and Sutton headed it in yet again with 4:32 left to seal the game.
“I think it shows how resilient we can be as a team,” Burtchin said. “We’ve always talked about having the mindset that the last girl on the bench can bring the biggest energy. She can still have a really important role.
“We’ve been focusing on that, that it’s not just the girls playing on the field. It’s our whole team. Everybody has to give their best effort in order for us to be a good, strong team because we can have girls out here scoring on the field, but it means a lot to have the bench and the energy that we do.”
Cross was happy with how her team’s defense held Oak Harbor to a minimal amount of uncontested looks.
“We were defensively disciplined, and we were patient,” Cross said. “We waited for our chances. We knew that we couldn’t get to every ball first, so reading the game and knowing when we can step and when to allow them to get to it first and stay in position, so that we’re not beat on a quick ball (was important).”
The improbable run now continues for Eastwood after knocking off both of the NBC’s co-champs in district play.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen, but I think being the underdog isn’t so bad,” Cross said. “It was kind of nice to know that we weren’t supposed to win, but we had every belief that we could win and that we were going to win.
“I think both (Lake and Oak Harbor) kind of came in knowing that we were better than our record showed. I think that they were nervous to play us, and they should have been.
“I don’t want to knock Lake or Oak Harbor by any means as they are great teams and phenomenal programs who are well-coached and had great seasons, but I’m so proud of our girls.”
