KIRTLAND—Regular season losses are rare at Kirtland but Hornets head coach Ed Bradac isn’t concerned that his squad dropped to 0-1-1 after Monday’s 3-1 setback to visiting Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin at Recreation Park.
Bradac beefed up his team’s non-conference schedule to prepare the Hornets for a rugged and long postseason run.
“I would rather go up against a Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin rather than an opponent we can beat 7-0,” Bradac said. “We aren’t going to learn from that or grow from it. We just have to weather the storm and at the other side that storm will bring better things for us.”
The Lions broke a scoreless tie with 30:31 remaining in the first half.
A nearby thunderstorm forced the players to safety for over an hour before play resumed.
Freshman Leah LaVerde finished off a Lidia Rodin cross to tie the game with 22:17 left in the first half.
“Lidia hit a beautiful cross and Leah finished it off on the back side,” Bradac said. “All through our scrimmages that’s how she gets goals for us, she’s in the right place at the right time. That was a prime example of that.”
NDCL took a 2-1 lead into halftime and added a third goal midway through the second half to close out the scoring.
“We go down by a goal and they respond to come back and tie the game 1-1 and for me that’s big,” Bradac said. “The same thing kind of happened in a scrimmage against Kenston and we were able to battle back. I like that because there is fight in them.”
Despite the loss, Bradac was pleased with his team’s effort and motivation throughout the game and he knows the wins will come, eventually.
“The key for me is that as a collective group of players we don’t hang our heads,” Bradac said. “When we look at the first few games on our schedule it’s against quality opponents. There isn’t a Division III team until we get into the middle of September. The reason I did that is because this is a good group. Our record may not show it right away, but I have faith that they will get better each and every game.”
Bradac was especially pleased with the play of his defensive unit which included senior goalkeeper Gabby Culotta, seniors Jess Hepper and Danielle Davis and sophomores Tea Petric and Lilia Valentic.
“I think our defense with Jess, Tea, Lilia and Danielle and Gabby is strong,” he said. “They’re getting better each and every game. I’m encouraged by that.”
Kirtland travels to Hawken on Thursday.
