CHESTERLAND—Thomas Kirchner’s second-half goal led West Geauga to a 1-0 win over visiting Lutheran West Tuesday.
With a scoreless game entering the 56th minute, Kirchner changed the game with his second goal of the season of a Frankie Sassano assist.
“It was a good goal for Thomas,” said West Geauga head coach Daniel Cappelucci. “He did a good job of finding the ball and making plays in the attacking third. We had some good chances in the first half but missed a few opportunities. At halftime, we talked about getting Thomas the ball in space.”
After Kirchner’s goal, the West Geauga defense did the rest.
Mason Mobley recorded nine saves in West Geauga’s second straight shutout.
“Mason’s done a great job all year,” Cappelucci said. “He’s a leader for us in the back end. He’s fearless and vocal and does a great job on free and corner kicks. He’s a calming presence for the defense, and they know he’s going to make the save. Both goalkeepers played fantastic tonight.”
Although the game-winning goal came off a brilliant pass in the second half, West Geauga had tremendous early ball movement that paired with quality shots on goal in the attacking third before losing that flow in the second half.
“We thought we looked really strong in the first half,” Cappelucci said. “We were moving the ball well, but in the second half, we let the emotions of the game get the best of us. It was a tight game; both teams were physical, and we let the emotions take over. We stopped playing our brand of soccer. That’s the key for us. Can we stretch our brand of play and be consistent with it for a full 80 minutes? We had long stretches in the first half and short periods in the second half, but not enough. That’s something we’re going to focus on this week.”
This win is the Wolverines’ first Chagrin Valley Conference victory of the season, and they got right back into the mix with Hawken, Harvey, and Orange.
“It’s important to get that first conference win,” Cappelucci said of the tight Chagrin Division race. “It’s a tough conference; top to bottom, all the teams are strong. Getting a win is not easy to come by; we’ve played well in all of our CVC games so far. Hopefully, this kickstarts us in finishing the rest of the CVC campaign well.”
Lutheran West dropped to 0-4-3 on the year but has been competitive in all of its games to this point, something a young Longhorns group can build on.
“We can gain a ton of experience from these games,” said Lutheran West head coach David Quayle. “It’s a very young core, and we return nine starters next year. The more great teams we can play, the better as we build moving forward. I’d rather compete and lose to a good team than beat up on a bad team where (the team) doesn’t grow as soccer players or as a person.”
One key factor in keeping this contest scoreless for so long was the outstanding play of Longhorns goalkeeper Evan King, who notched 12 saves, but he did more than that for his defense.
“I came out and cleared a lot of balls that got through,” King said. “I got a couple of corners (kicks) in the air to prevent headers, and other than that one that snuck through, I think our defense had a pretty good game.”
The one last piece to fix for Lutheran West is in the attacking third, with its defense only allowing eight goals in seven games.
“That finishing product of a goal hasn’t come yet this season,” Quayle said. “That’s just a work in progress, and we’re trying to figure out how to make that happen.”
Lutheran West will take to the pitch on Saturday when it hosts Cuyahoga Heights, while West Geauga hosts Solon on Thursday.
