BURTON–Kelly McCandless and Emma Rucinski each recorded a hat trick in Berkshire’s 8-0 district semifinal win over visiting Pymatuning Valley on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Badgers, who led 3-0 at halftime before increasing the aggressiveness in the second half, advanced to Saturday’s Division V district championship game against No. 4 Champion at Austintown Fitch High School.
“Our biggest thing at halftime is that the first half doesn’t matter,” said Berkshire head coach Ian Patterson. “It doesn’t matter whether we finish or not if we don’t win the game. Whether we’re winning or not, they have to give it their all until the end.”
McCandless and Berkshire drew first blood with a goal in the 16th minute.
Emma Rucinski got on the board in the 21st and 22nd minutes, sending the Badgers into the break up 3-0.
Mary Flee found the back of the net in the 52nd minute and Rucinski secured the hat-trick with a 60th-minute score off a McCandless assist, who then scored 25 seconds later for a 6-0 Berkshire lead.
Three minutes later, McCandless capped off her hat trick before Peyton Larch set up Kylie Gleason for the game-ending 70th-minute score.
“It’s great to (Rucinski) come into her own this postseason as a freshman,” Patterson said. “She’s struggled with injuries this year and was searching for a consistent rhythm, so tonight, finding easy goals on the backside will be good for her confidence. Kelly had another hat trick, and she broke the school record for goals in a season tonight with 33. She’s on a tear–nine goals in the last two games. She’s building confidence and is a threat when she has the ball. It’s just great to have girls like that on the field.”
For most of the night, Berkshire kept Pymatuning Valley out of its attacking third, only allowing two shots on goal, leading to the Badgers’ highly potent offensive output.
“After Newton Falls, we talked about how we needed to be tighter,” Patterson said. “We were a little lackadaisical against Newton Falls. Once we got a few goals, we got ahead of ourselves and gave them too much space. We tightened that up tonight and made it hard for the whole game. That was a big difference.”
As Berkshire works its way through the bracket, the level of competition rises, making it paramount that coach Patterson’s team approaches each game and opponent with the same mindset.
“We’ve just had the mindset that we’re playing Chagrin Falls every game,” Patterson said of his teams’ mindset. “We played (Chagrin) a couple of weeks ago, and it was a brutal match. The girls played hard, but we ended up losing. We have to go into every game with the mindset that it will be a dogfight for 80 minutes. We have to be ready for it.”
