Eastwood’s Piper Sutton delivers the first goal in her team’s 3-0 win over Hubbard in Tuesday’s Division IV regional semifinal at Shelby’s Whippet Athletic Complex. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
SHELBY — The Eastwood girls soccer team is elite once again.
Piper Sutton scored twice, and Karly Wasserman added another on Tuesday as the Eagles knocked off Hubbard 3-0 inside Shelby High School’s Whippet Athletic Complex in a Division IV regional semifinal.
“As soon as I saw those go in, I was just so excited, especially the first one,” Sutton said. “We weren’t going to give up. We were going to keep fighting. I think the excitement was just through the roof. Everyone was just so excited, and I think that we knew we had it once the first one went in.”
With the win, Eastwood (10-8-3) advances to face Ottawa-Glandorf (18-2) on Saturday at noon inside Clyde’s Robert J. Bishop Jr. Stadium in what will be a rematch of the 2021 and 2023 Division III regional finals.
In fact, this will be the fourth regional final appearance over the past five seasons for Eastwood, which also made the regional semifinal in 2018 and 2019, giving the Eagles a veteran presence against a Hubbard team that was playing in their first regional since 2001.
“I definitely think it helped because we have a lot of people who have been in this position before,” Sutton said. “It’s nice to know what the pressure feels like, so we were able to kind of calm down and help our younger players just play our game.”
While the two teams combined for just four total shots over the first 25 minutes, Eastwood put pressure on Hubbard from the start, creating several pressure moments for their defense.
Then, with just over 15 minutes left, Karissa Nelson fought for possession on the sideline left of the goal before crossing it to Sutton, who left-footed it in for a 1-0 lead, which the Eagles carried into the half.
“I think something we did better this game than I’ve seen in the last couple is just being first to balls and not giving up on plays,” Eastwood coach Julie Cross said. “And if we don’t get to the first ball, we’ll win the second one.”
Lauren Schuerman had two shots on goal in the first half as Eastwood out-shot Hubbard 5-2 in the first 40 minutes, including the final four after Hubbard’s best look of the half went wide with 19:06 left.
Hubbard (11-7-3), which had entered Tuesday’s match having won six straight, had two shots on goal early in the second half, including one in which Jordan Jensen had to leap up to grab with both hands just two minutes in.
Eastwood, however, got a another shot from Schuerman that went just high with 34:35 left, and less than two minutes later, Wasserman took a pass from Nelson, turned and delivered a two-goal lead for the Eagles.
“My teammate played me a great ball, and I took a touch,” Wasserman said. “I really wasn’t thinking when I shot it. I just shot it, and it went in.
“We’ve come a long way since the start of the season. We knew tournament time would be revenge time. We just want to do something that no (girls soccer) team has done in our school history before, and that’s to win regional finals.”
Behind the play of Jensen, who made a save with 23:05 left and dove to stuff a potential opportunity with 17:52 left, Eastwood held its lead over the next 20 minutes, which set up Sutton’s second goal.
With 13:43 left, Sutton stole the ball, turned and lofted a shot from near the left sideline that bounced and went up-and-over Hubbard’s 5-4 goalkeeper, Kasey Cooper.
“I told my assistants in warmups that we were kind of goofy and very carefree,” Cross said. “We didn’t seem stressed or nervous or tense at all. I think they’re all just excited to be playing right now, playing for each other, and I think that it showed.
“They didn’t go into it nervous of making a mistake. We were going to give them our best game, and we’ll see what happens from there.”
Jensen added two more great saves, a diving two-handed stop before eventually running to corral it with 13:09 left, and another where she leaped up to deflect the ball before turning around and grabbing it mid-air before it crossed the line just over a minute later.
Jensen finished with eight saves for Eastwood, which has now won five straight entering Saturday’s match with three-time defending state runner-up, Ottawa-Glandorf.
Hubbard, meanwhile, saw its season end after a magical run that included a 9-1-3 record entering Tuesday’s game after starting the season 2-5.
Eastwood was able to hold Hubbard’s leading scorer, Adalyn Manzo, scoreless after the freshman entered the regional semifinal with 40 goals.
“Our belief in each other and the belief in the game plan with disciplined defending front to back is our biggest (strength),” Cross said. “If we play good defense, the offensive chances will come.”
