When Roxanne Drueschler played soccer at Lexington, graduating in 2002, she was a standout goalkeeper whose only goal was to keep the ball out of the net.
Now the head coach for Lady Lex, she has waited for an offensive explosion after her team scored just six goals in its first eight games. Her wait ended Tuesday night on the home pitch as Lexington topped Madison, 7-4, in an Ohio Cardinal Conference match.
So how does Lady Lex (3-5-1, 2-1-1 OCC) go from six goals in eight games to six goals in the first half?
“Our first few games were against some huge and very talented Division I schools,” said Drueschler, in her second year at her alma mater. “Plus, we suffered a lot of injuries earlier this season and we are just now starting to get healthy. Our last two games, we had so many players injured, we started seven JV players on the varsity.”
Lexington opened the year with 1-0 wins against Mansfield Senior and Findlay before tying Ashland, 1-1. Then came a five-match losing streak to Brunswick (2-1), state-ranked Ontario (2-1), Hillard Davidson (6-1), Clear Fork (5-0) and Notre Dame Academy (3-0).
Both Lexington and Madison have rosters filled with underclassmen. The Lady Rams, in fact, have only two seniors on their roster. But it was two Lady Lex senior forwards that carried the battle on Tuesday night. In the fact, the dynamic duo scored all seven Lexington goals.
Allie Gottschling got Lexington on the board first , dribbling in from the right side and slamming a goal past Madison sophomore goalkeeper Catherine Loughman just 2:04 into the game.
Emily Stevens scored the first of her four first-half goals with 36:19 on the clock, knocking in a crossing pass from Gottschling. Stevens made it 3-0 with about three minutes left on her second goal.
Madison (2-6-1, 1-4 OCC) ,which suffered its fourth straight loss, got on the board with 32:09 left when sophomore forward Haley Washington beat Lady Lex senior goalkeeper Megan Weiss, cutting the deficit to 3-1.
But Stevens knocked in her third goal at the 29:41 mark, assisted by freshman Hannah Martin, pushing the Lady Lex lead to 4-1. Gottschling notched her second goal with 27:58 left, assisted by freshman Catherine Schaefer, extending the lead to 5-1.
The Lady Rams bounced back with two goals by junior Hayley Sampsel at 24:41 and 19:58, cutting Lexington’s lead to 5-3. But Lady Lex made it 6-3 when Stevens scored her fourth goal of the game, again assisted by Schaefer.
After nine goals in the first half, both teams scored just once in the final 40 minutes. Gottschling got her third goal with 4:59 left to play, assisted by Stevens. Madison got its final goal on a direct kick by senior midfielder Anastacia Atwell with 1:44 remaining.
“Emily is my vision player … that’s why I like her in the middle. She knows just where to pass the ball, but she is not afraid to take the shot, either,” Drueschler said. “Allie is my speed player. She runs every ball down and never gives up on it.
“Plus tonight, we were able to (junior) Abby Kaple up front. Because of injuries, she has had to play defense. She has done a great job, but tonight is the first time we could have all three girls up front,” Drueschler said.
“I think we have a very talented team. If we can continue to get and stay healthy and I can play the girls where I want to play them, I think we can do well in the OCC and post-season tournaments,” Drueschler said.
Madison coach Erin Schulz said her team could not overcome its slow start. “We came out completely flat. We were not moving. We were not talking. We allowed Lexington to dictate to us,” she said.
“Once we changed our formation a little bit, we got a bit more pep in our step and played much better,” she said.”
Both teams have OCC matches on Thursday. Madison plays at Clear Fork while Lexington is at Wooster.
Lexington also won the junior varsity match against the Rams, 4-1.
