Chillicothe girls hand Unioto first loss
- Chillicothe handed Unioto its first loss of the year.
- The Cavaliers’ Kenzie Brown and Maddie Ford both scored as well as Unioto’s Lexi Maughmer.
CHILLICOTHE – Despite spending most of the second half on the opposing side of the field and sending a barrage of shots at the opposing goalie, Unioto’s girls soccer team suffered its first loss Thursday night.
After winning their first five contests in 2015, the Shermans fell at home to Chillicothe, 3-1.
“It’s great to see two teams come out here and represent Chillicothe with decent soccer,” Unioto coach Kendra Dalton said. “It’s important that the level of play keeps going up from here and the quality of our players continues to get better.”
The key to the win for the Cavaliers (4-1, 3-0 South Central Ohio League) was winning 1-on-1 matchups and ball control.
“We think there’s three keys to winning soccer games,” Chillicothe coach Zach Breth said. “It starts with possession of the ball, which gives you more chances to score. I thought we did that really well tonight. Then we go to 1-versus-1 matchups, which means you’ve got to do your job, either offensively or defensively. We were very good there as well. And then you’ve got to win the ball in the end. If you go to the key moments in the game, it’s when your defense wins the ball.”
After a mostly back-and-forth first half, the Cavaliers busted the scoring seal with a goal from Maddie Ford at the 7:04 mark.
Chillicothe’s 1-0 lead would remain until the 9:18 mark in the second half when the Cavaliers’ Payten Davis found Kenzie Brown near Unioto’s goal, making it 2-0.
Unioto (5-1) would quickly strike back when Lexi Maughmer scored 19 seconds later to cut the lead in half, 2-1.
But with 5:18 left, Chillicothe scored on an own goal via Unioto’s Cadee Causey, making it 3-1 and ultimately putting the game out of reach.
In the victory, the Cavs sustained a vicious attack from the Shermans’ offense and were anchored by goalie Haylee Jo Large.
“Haylee has come out of nowhere for us,” Breth said. “It’s her senior year, and she just decides to be a goalie. She does a great job though. She trains hard, asks the right questions and wants to get better. And she’s come on at the exact right time.”
Even with the loss, Unioto didn’t leave empty handed.
“We can take a lot of positives out of this,” Unioto coach Cara Rathkamp said. “We have to ask ourselves how we can bounce back from this loss. We had opportunities today, but we just weren’t able to finish. That’s something that we definitely need to get better at. We have to be able to hit feet and winning balls out of the air. A loss could be the best thing that happens for us at this point.”
Chillicothe will have the weekend off, returning to action Tuesday at Clinton-Massie. The Shermans will try and bounce back Saturday at Bishop Hartley.
dwebb@chillicothegazette.com
Twitter: @dw1509