Missed opportunities have haunted the Independence girls’ soccer team in past district tournament games and the same was nearly true of Monday’s Division III district semifinal against visiting Wellington, at least until the Blue Devils buried three second-half goals to advance to their first district championship game in school history.
“We’ve gotten to this game several times and we’ve never come through but we also never hosted it, so that’s really nice,” Independence coach Bryan Less said. “The girls have been working hard and we came out and did what we normally do, great passing and a lot of shots and in the second half and we finally got them going.”
The Blue Devils, who improved to 12-3-3, faced a Wellington squad that packed it in on the defensive end. Yet, Independence created several scoring opportunities. Three shots sailed through the football uprights and Riccela DiGeronimo’s attempt at dribbling through traffic ended up with a corner kick after her shot was secured by the Wellington keeper just past the end line with five minutes left in the first half.
“We played a very good game in the first half; we just did not put the ball in the net,” Less said. “That’s all that was missing. We had some good opportunities it was just that final finish that was missing.”
DiGeronimo finally turned a shot into a goal when she outran the defense on a free ball through the midfield and delivered a laser shot into the left corner of the net with 20:13 remaining in the game. Nine minutes later, she made it 2-0 on a very similar shot.
Paige Westerburg closed out the scoring with an insurance goal at the 5:27 mark.
“Our players played well in both halves and Wellington played well throughout,” Less said. “We just finally put the ball in the back of the net.”
Independence’s defense of Rachel Belitz, Heather Patacca, Elise Nelson, Marisa Silvestro and Josie Lee handled Wellington’s counter-attack throughout the night.
While Independence dominated possession, the Dukes create several fast-break opportunities but the Blue Devils chased them all down.
“That’s kind of what we ran into a lot this season when we struggled to put teams away because we can’t finish,” Less said. “They get some fast breaks so we did some really good team defending with Rachel and Heather and Elise and Marisa and Josie. They had good communication and we always had people marked. There was only one opportunity where someone was open and Heather caught her there at the end of the first half.”
Reni Kaiser also did her part in the net.
She recorded her eighth shutout of the season and fourth straight.
“Reni did a nice job,” Less said. “For her, a lot of times it’s just positioning. She’s in the right spot and she has good hands. If you’re in the right spot and you’ve got good hands, it’s not going to get past you.”
The Blue Devils advanced to Thursday’s district championship game at Strongsville High School where they’ll face a familiar opponent in Chagrin Valley Conference Metro Division rival Wickliffe.
Wickliffe beat Elyria Catholic in a shootout on Monday to advance to Thursday’s championship game. Independence and Wickliffe battled to a 0-0 draw back on Sept. 5.
“We’re just going to keep doing what we do,” Less said. “We’ll practice tomorrow and just keep taking it as we go. I told them it’s going to be more about us, do we put the ball in the net?”
