Bay’s Ian Munro controls the ball near the sideline against Westlake’s Kevin Murthy during last Saturday night’s non-conference game for the Dover Cup. Munro scored the game’s first goal as Bay won, 2-1. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Bay soccer soars to the top
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published Oct. 15, 2008

As the old joke goes, there are a few things in life that are a given, such as dying and paying taxes.

One might as well add Bay winning soccer championships to that list.

Both the boys and girls teams gained West Shore Conference championships this past week with wins over Avon.

The boys finished unbeaten at 7-0 in league games after downing the Eagles, 3-1, last Wednesday. The Rockets closed out the regular season last Saturday night with a 2-1 win over neighborhood rival Westlake in the annual Dover Cup. The win gave them a final regular season record of 13-2-1.

The girls team won a share of the conference crown with a 2-1 win at home against the Eagles last Wednesday. Bay, due to a 2-1 loss to Rocky River a few weeks ago, had to settle for a three-way tie for first with Avon and the Pirates, all at 6-1 in the WSC.

Now comes the sectional/district tournament. The boys received the top seed in the tournament and will play the winner of this week’s Keystone-Brookside game at home Saturday at 3 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.

The girls, finishing at 9-5-2 overall, got the sixth seed and played North Ridgeville in a Division I semifinal this past Monday. A win would put them in tomorrow’s sectional final at Rocky River at 7 p.m.

“We knew going in that Avon was a team that could push us,” said Bay boys head coach Bob Dougherty, whose team is ranked fourth in the state in Division II.

“They had played Rocky River to a 3-3 tie, and River gave us a good game,” said Dougherty. “We knew we had to play hard from the start and get something going early against them. We also knew they had to play for the win, that a tie wouldn’t get it done for them.”

Bay’s Ian Munro drinks from the Dover Cup after the Rockets defeated Westlake, 2-1, last Saturday night. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

By defeating the Eagles, Bay raised its WSC mark to a perfect 21-0 the past three seasons after losing the first league title to co-champs River and Vermilion. Their total WSC record during those four seasons is 26-0-2.

The girls needed a goal in the 78th minute by freshman Giuliana Pugliese to pull off the win against Avon and clinch its portion of the title. She scored a header off a corner kick from Katie Ludwig with 2:03 left in the game.

That goal was huge, considering Avon had tied the goal in the 64th minute on a goal from its top scorer, Megan Repas, on a penalty kick. Anna Irvine’s goal off an assist from Jackie Harris had given the Rockets a 1-0 lead in the first half.

“The girls really deserved this,” said first year head coach Jack Griffiths. “We made a mistake and paid the price, but I think that tie with Mentor a week ago helped the girls pull out this win.

“Sure, there was a questionable call that led to the penalty kick,” said Griffiths. “A lot of teams might have folded at that point, but the girls remembered how they played in that Mentor game and stuck with it.

“At the beginning of the season, our No. 1 goal was to win the conference. We won this league the first three years it existed. It’s great to have at least a share of it this year after the girls thought they had lost it after the River game,” he said.

Both teams made some adjustments to their defense that made a difference, according to their respective coaches.

“We moved Kyle Hyland into the middle back back when we played Padua,” said Dougherty. “We weren’t playing bad defense. In fact, we had six shutouts in a row. But we felt we needed to clean things up a bit back there.

“We had a whole new back line coming into this season, and after 12 games we felt we needed more communication back there. The players knew what they were doing, but we needed someone to be more vocal, to be a general and get things organized for us,” he said.

With Hyland sandwiched between seniors Sam Ward and Rick Duffield, the Bay defense is “confident and more comfortable with what they’re doing,” Dougherty added.

Against Avon, Aaron Adkins had a pair of goals, with Ian Munro adding another. Munro had the first goal against Westlake four minutes into the first half, while Adkins scored the second goal for a 2-0 lead with 20 minutes left in the game.

“It’s a great rivalry, with both teams playing to win,” said Dougherty. “Nobody wants a tie in this game, because a tie is like getting punched in the eye. Both team’s goalies were unbelievable, and it was just a great game overall. Both teams played hard, and there’s a ton of respect because everyone knows each other.”

The Bay girls used a 2-0 loss to North Olmsted to their benefit, said Griffiths.

“We felt we were getting beat in the middle of the field that game,” he said. “So we put Megan Griffiths and Ludwig back there and there was a noticeable difference. We sacrificed some offense, but the move just seemed to make everything work better overall.”