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By
George Starks - Greenville junior Mikayla Byers works for control of
the ball as St. Mary’s junior Molly Albert
fights to maintain control.
The Lady Wave fell 12-0 to the Lady Riders, one of the elite teams in
the state.
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Lady Wave outmatched
by St. Marys
By George Starks
GREENVILLE - When it comes to girls soccer in the state of Ohio, one of
the elite teams is St. Marys.
In the last four years alone, the Lady Riders have gone to the district
finals four times, the regional finals twice with one state final four
appearance.
It came as no surprise to Wave coach Pete Ziehler that this match was
not going to be easy.
The Wave fell to their opponents, 12-0 but Ziehler had nothing but
praise for his team.
“We knew coming in what to expect,” said Ziehler. “They came out
aggressive and attacked the ball on offense. By our account, they took
about 30 shots and last year, they took about 57 on us. Yes, the score
was the same as last year but they just kept firing and we were done in
five minutes. We played very hard tonight and there were more positives
than negatives. We had injured players and two that weren’t here
tonight for personal reasons.
We were playing with heavy hearts as one of our players had a death in
the family. We are a big family here and none of my girls quit. My goal
tonight was to play 80 minutes of soccer and we did that. There were
times when they got frustrated but I would get frustrated too if it
were me out there playing.”
By the break, the Riders had built a 5-0 lead. A lead that swelled to a
commanding7-0 advantage with less than 10 minutes having expired off
the second half clock.
Despite the score, Ziehler was not disappointed.
“A 1-0 loss or a 12-0 loss, I’m proud of these kids,” Ziehler admitted.
“There’s no shame in losing to a team of this caliber. We are setting
the table for the GWOC (Greater Western Ohio Conference). We have Troy
on Saturday and we go in with a 1-2 record but we go in ahead of Troy.
The Trojans haven’t been able to score as much. Troy is a team we can
beat.”
Even though the score was lopsided, the Wave made St. Marys work for
everything it got for 80 minutes.
“If we can hang with a team like this, we can hang with anyone,”
Ziehler said of his team. “We know that Troy will be tough as will
Celina after that. Then we have a run of seven or eight teams we should
beat. The best thing about this team is they didn’t get down on
themselves. In years past, it was a different story.”
Ziehler closed by saying, “our unwritten motto is ‘Shock the GWOC’ and
I think we’re going to. This team has talent and we will be there at
the end of the season in the GWOC.”
Things weren’t any better for the Wave junior varsity, falling to the
Riders 17-0.
Greenville will play at Troy on Saturday in a 5:30 start.
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