BELLVILLE – The rematch Tuesday evening of last year’s Division II girls’ district soccer final will go down as a 0-0 tie.
But coaches from Clear Fork and Ontario both came away with vastly different impressions of their own teams after play was halted by a violent thunderstorm with 12:29 left to play.
“The good news is the girls will come to practice tomorrow knowing we have a lot to work on,” said Clear Fork coach Brittany Bechtel. “I didn’t like anything I saw from us in the first half. I thought we did much better in the second.”
Ontario coach Larry Atkinson, whose team won the district title match 3-0 last season, said, “I am very proud of our girls. To come out ready to play in that big a game in their place and have more chances to score than they did .. I am very pleased with that.”
The early season clash on the Lady Colts’ pitch was the only regular season meeting between two of the best programs in north central. A rematch would likely come in the district finals. It was the first game of the season for Clear Fork (0-0-1). Ontario (0-1-1) opened its season Saturday with a 2-0 loss against Lima Bath.
“We came out tonight ready to play and the girls gave great effort,” said Atkinson, whose team welcomed back five starters from the 15-3-2 team that fell to Rocky River in the regional semifinals. “We were more relaxed and played with confidence. If we had played that way against Lima Bath, that would have been a 5-0 game easily.”
The Warriors, with just three seniors on the varsity team, dominated much of the first half. It was outstanding work by vaunted Clear Fork senior goal keeper Morgan Bailey that stopped Ontario from two or three first-half scores.
“She played a tremendous game,” said Bechtel, adding her defenders in front of Bailey need to improve. “I am not sure where we would have been without Morgan tonight.
“I thought we were a lot farther along defensively than we showed tonight. We were soft on defense. We have got to get stronger and tougher. We were getting pushed off the ball. Some of them were fouls, but other times we just needed to be stronger.”
Atkinson praised the Colts’ keeper. “She is an outstanding keeper. We knew that going in. We won’t face another goalkeeper like that all year. We had our opportunities (to score). That’s all we can ask for.”
Ontario, whose keeper Katherine Beech also pitched a shut-out, had their hands full containing a pair of All-Ohio Clear Fork performers in junior forward Jordyne Helinski and senior midfielder Deijah Swihart.
“We knew we had to switch people on and off of (Helinski). She is a great forward. We knew if we could harass her a little bit that maybe we could frustrate her. But you can’t hold her down all night. She got around us a couple of times and got shots off. Our goalkeeper also did an outstanding job.”
Clear Fork, which lost 13 players who saw varsity time last season, plays at Mansfield St. Peter’s on Saturday. Ontario is at home Thursday against Norwalk.
Fittingly, the junior varsity match on Tuesday between the two schools also ended in a scoreless tie.
