MIDDLEFIELD—Independence junior Wyatt Kunevicius scored four goals to lead the Blue Devils to an 8-0 win at Cardinal on Tuesday.
Kunevicius now leads Independence with 11 goals on the year.
“It was a good game,” Kunevicius said. “We started off a little slow but we pulled it together towards the end and we, overall we won, so it’s good. It was definitely a team effort.”
Cardinal stuffed the back end with defenders which forced the Blue Devils to work extra hard for their scoring opportunities.
Christian Seif got things going for Independence when he found the back of the net in the eighth minute to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead. Kunevicius made it 2-0 with just over four minutes to play in the first half and he added his second two minutes later.
“Once (Seif) gets going everybody else gets going,” said Independence coach Ryan MacRaild. “Today was a good example of that. He was a little out of it at the start and then once he started going everybody else started going. It’s nice to see that spark coming out of a junior.”
Sam Belitz, Nolan Fields and Jared McCullough also scored for the Blue Devils, who improved to 6-0-1 overall and 3-0-1 in Chagrin Valley Conference play. Kevin Mewhinney assisted on two goals and Seif, Fields, Wisniewski and Matt Mroczynski also recorded assists.
“We like to spread the love,” MacRaild said. “A lot of guys got some shots on goal. It was nice to be able to capitalize on them.”
Jake Laski and Tyler Korecko split time in goal with Laski recording the lone save for the Blue Devils.
Things will get a bit more competitive for the Blue Devils next week. They host Columbia on Sept. 21 then travel to Elyria Catholic on Sept. 24. Independence returns to league play on Sept. 29 when they host Kirtland in a game that could decide which school wins the CVC Valley Division title.
“The next three games are going to be big,” MacRaild said. “We’ve got Columbia, a top Division III school in our area, and Elyria Catholic, who is having an interesting year. Hopefully we can compete with them. Then we’ll face Kirtland; that’s our next CVC game. Hopefully we can continue our winning ways. The kids have some goals and being undefeated in the regular season is one of them, so hopefully we can continue in that direction.”
