BURTON—Junior Ashley Perryman scored two goals in the final four minutes of Beachwood’s Chagrin Valley Conference showdown at Berkshire on Thursday but it was the Badgers that came away with a 3-2 victory in a battle of undefeated teams.
Berkshire scored two first hfirst-halfand added another midway through the second half to take control of the contest. The momentum remained on the Badger sideline until Perryman moved to the front for the final eight minutes.
“The first 75 minutes were pretty good,” said Berkshire coach Ian Patterson. “It’s always good to have a test for your team but we really didn’t want it in that way where Beachwood buried two, but it was a good test for the team. They haven’t really been tested down the stretch that often this year, so it was nice to see us late in the game pull away.”
Freshman Summer Larch gave the Badgers an early lead when she finished off an assist from sophomore Allie Barcikoski five minutes into the game. Lexi Boyk made it 2-0 with 22:18 remaining in the first half.
“A couple of times this year we have come out to a slow start in the first 20 minutes or so,” Patterson said. “It was nice to put away that first goal tonight.”
Senior Julia Frank gave the Badgers what looked to be an insurmountable lead when she found an open net with 28:32 left to play.
The Badgers entered the game having allowed just three goals in their previous five games.
“It was a lockdown night for them other than the last five minutes,” Patterson said. “They’ve done a great job all year.”
Looking for a way to spark his offense, Beachwood coach Jon Kostoff moved Perryman from the defense to forward with about eight minutes left to play.
“She’s a two-time state champion on the track team and she’s an unbelievable athlete,” Kostoff said. “We put her up front to mix it up. We end up 3-2 and proved to the CVC and proved to a team that we might see back in sectionals or districts that we can compete at this level. That’s what we’re trying to prove to ourselves game in and game out, that this isn’t the program of old. This is a program that is built over the summer and we’ve gotten better as the season has gone along.”
Perryman scored her first goal with 4:02 left to play.
She fielded a through ball just past the midfield stripe then beat the Berkshire defense to the net. Her second came a minute and a half later in similar fashion.
“This was a big game for us,” Kostoff said. “We don’t play Orange this year, our rival, because they’re up in the upper division, so this was a game that we wanted to have. We lost last year here, 8-1, and the girls wanted it. We weren’t in it but we were competitive tonight. What we did tonight, we proved to the CVC that we’re here to play.”
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