Lady Demons need to pass two more tough tests
By Zachary Dzurick
Sports
Published Oct. 6, 2004

Westlake has a strong girls soccer program, and it has been that way for several seasons.

The Lady Demons play a difficult schedule against many of the tops teams in Ohio. They have gone 12-2 the last two years in the Southwestern Conference.

But two years in a row, one team has stood in their way: Bay.

This season, though, Westlake finds itself in the driver's seat, with a 5-0 conference mark heading into tonight's matchup against Avon Lake with the conference finale against Bay to follow next week. Westlake is 5-0 in conference while Avon Lake is 2-0-3 and Bay is 3-1-1.

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A tie tonight would secure a share of the title.

The Lady Demons, however, don't feel like sharing.

"The only time we were SWC champs was our freshman year and we were co-champs with Bay," Slater said. "We have never straight-out won the conference, so it is one of our goals to do that and then go far in the tournament."

"This season I had really high expectation for us because we only lost two of our starters," senior co-captain Hanna Wilde said. "Even though they were good players, we brought up two players who played their positions who were equally as good and were only freshmen."

Seven seniors in all returned and freshmen Lauren Acker and Stephanie Szarka have stepped right in and played some outstanding soccer.

"Most of our seniors had high expectations and we all have confidence in the two freshmen that they could hold their own," co-captain Kelsey Slater said.

The two freshmen are fullback Lauren Acker and midfielder Brooke Henderson.

"Lauren Acker started at the beginning of the year playing sweeper," Wilde said. "I thought she did a real good job. She was really strong back there. I knew she was good but I was pleasantly surprised by how well she did. We changed recently and put one of our seniors, Stephanie Szarka, at sweeper and Acker to outside defense and I think she has been awesome at there too. Brooke Henderson plays midfield and has done a good job too. It is hard to play midfield as a freshman. At center-mid you control so much of the game and she has done a really good job."

Wilde, who recently signed a national letter of intent for Div. I Central Florida, and Slater, provide the offensive punch and leadership for the Demons. Coach Scott Jones could not ask for better leaders.

"Kelsey is just a pure leader in every aspect of her life," Jones said. "She leads by example through her words, her actions and what she doesn't do. She is one of the hardest-working athletes I have ever coached. She is pretty much everything you could possibly want in a leader. She has been like that since she was a sophomore, which is as long as I have known her.

"Hanna is technically the best soccer player that I have ever coached and one of the best ones in the state of Ohio. So through her ability to play, our kids want to emulate her and the younger players want to play like her and because she is so talented they want to be accepted by her because she is simply so good.

"So they both lead in different ways but both are affective. It is just great on they are on our team and not someone else's."

The two have developed a special bond on and off the field.

"Kelsey and I have always had really good chemistry together," Wilde said. "I enjoy playing with Kelsey a lot. We can read each other more than other players."

"It helps our chemistry on and off the field," Slater said. "It helps knowing where each of us is going to be and it helps that I have a lot of confidence in Hanna. I trust I know where the ball is going to be. I know she is thinking what I am thinking."

Jones has capitalized on Wilde and Slater's intelligence to play an unusual formation.

"We changed our formation from 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3," Wilde said. "It helps our offense a lot but occasionally it makes us weak in the middle, but we can always bring the center-forward back to help play defense. It has helped our offense a lot."

Jones knows it is not for every team, but when you have a player like Wilde , who has 54 career goals and 58 assists, you find ways to use her talent.

"What it does is it actually frees Hanna up," Jones said. "She plays as the third attacking forward. It almost provides her a rover style of play. She is free to track back into the midfield. Being as intelligent as she is, she can recognize the need when she needs to be there and when she doesn't need to be there. The nice thing about it is there are no two times down the field in a row that we are the same. One time she is on the inside, one time she is on the outside. One minute she is at the mid, one minute she is at the sweeper. It provides us with a lot of goof offensive opportunities.

"They can mark her or double-team her, but even then she is too good with her feet. So the next thing is they just knock her down. If she is moving constantly, they can never get her twice in the same spot. So it makes it difficult to man mark her because you have to pull someone out of a spot and it causes confusion. I am not saying it is a style for everyone, but it is for us it is because we have someone like Hanna who that can do this. The other girls can play off her and it makes everyone better."

But every coach knows that you can't win championships without a strong defense, so that is what Westlake's program has been built on.

"We have been built on our defense for the last couple of years," Jones said. "Last year in 20 games, we gave up 11, 12 goals, which is a good ratio, especially with the schedule we play."

Through 12 games this season, Westlake has allowed just 10 goals.

"This year we shut out Hudson, gave up one goal to Mentor and shut out North Olmsted," Jones said. "We have a saying: 'If they don't score, they don't win.' With the defense we have, they are outstanding from the goalie to the stopper. We really try to preach team defense. It is not fullback responsibility; it counts just as much if the forwards take the ball away. So they have worked very hard at it."

The defense is solid throughout, but it begins with sophomore Tara McCrone.

"Tara McCrone is the epitome of the high school stopper," Jones said. "Strong, physical, very intelligent, very heart-driven. She usually establishes herself in the first couple minutes of the game with her first touch of the ball or the first time an opponent touches the ball; after that most opponents don't want to touch the ball anymore.

"She is very, very physical. I don't remember the last time I have seen anyone knock her off her feet. She stands only 5-3. She is just an imposing force. She wins 99 percent of 50/50 balls. She has it in her mind that her she will run into you and she will still be standing when it is done. The more she does it the more people back off from her. She is just a dominant force.

"As a freshman she marked Berea first-team All-Ohio forward Courbie Yee and held her to one shot on goal. She marked Nikki Tizziano of Mentor, who is an All-American, to two shots on goal. This year she blanketed Mandi Back and held her scoreless as well. It is nice to have a shutdown defensive player like that. "

Her teammates appreciate it.

"Tara McCrone is awesome," Slater said. "I can always count on her. If it is her and someone else I know she will always come out with the ball. She has the ability to play defense and offense. She is an all-around player."

She is not the only outstanding defensive player for Westlake, either.

"Both of our outside fullbacks -- freshman Lauren Acker and sophomore Mallory Sterba -- play with so much heart," Jones said. "One is a freshman and one is a sophomore. They are more excited over a shutout than if they scored three goals."

Wilde in particular admires Sterba.

"I always watch Mallory Sterba play defense," Wilde said. "I think she has so much heart when she plays. I love watching her. It seems different when a defender goes for the ball; they go all-out."

Szarka has never played sweeper before, but Jones is thrilled with how she has adjusted to the new position on the fly.

"Step Szarka is our sweeper and she has never played there before," Jones said. "We decided after a couple of games we needed a senior leader there to be in charge of the defense. She is learning as she goes. The impressive thing about her is that you will see her make a mistake purely because she has never done it before and the next time down the field she has corrected it already. She is a very intelligent player."

In soccer, however, there will be breakdowns no matter how good the defense. When that happens, you need a goalkeeper who, no matter how many or how few shots she has faced, is ready to make the big save.

"Danielle Kline is our goalie," Jones said. "She does a great job. She is one of the best high school goalkeepers I have ever seen at stopping breakaways. Probably doesn't get the recognition she deserves because there are always some big-name players at Westlake in the past and now. You may not hear much about her. She does whatever her team needs to win."

Westlake began the SWC schedule with a huge 3-0 win over North Olmsted.

"The North Olmsted game gave us a lot of confidence," Wilde said. "Personally I think it is easier to win a game after you have already won a few. It gives you confidence and makes you go out there and makes you think we can do this. Our team takes it one game at a time. So when we have a big conference game we will be focused and we will know it is really important to play our game and do what it takes to win."

Westlake then had to wait several weeks before taking on Avon Lake and Bay, but the Lady Demons had plenty to occupy them in between.

"We play a very demanding schedule even outside our conference," Jones said. "In a four-game period, we played Hudson, Mentor and Medina all top 8 through 16 teams in the state, so you have to be ready every game."

By taking it a game at a time, the players believe it prepares them for a big conference game and for the postseason tournament.

"We know every game for the conference matters and that every non-conference game matters for our seed for the tournament," Slater said. "We just have to go out and do our best. Because if we don't it will hurt us at the end of the year. I just go out and play hard every game and know that as long as we keep winning no one can take it away from us."