After the Buckeye Valley and Olentangy Berlin girls soccer teams had their Division II district tournament second-round game suspended Thursday night because of darkness, BV boys soccer coach Eric Staley remembered his team’s experience.
The BV boys soccer team had a tournament game suspended in 2015 and had to finish a couple of days later.
Staley recalled the second leg of the game went very quickly. The Barons played one overtime period and a shootout to beat Centennial.
If that was quick, Saturday’s finish was instant.
BV goalkeeper Cami Crawford collected the opening kickoff and punted back to midfield where Berlin’s Lexie Syroka ended up with it. She sent a ball through to the left corner where Ashley Kerekes ran it down and centered to Sydney Walker.
Walker, near the left post, rolled it in the right side to give Berlin a 3-2 win over BV 30 seconds into the second overtime.
“We practiced hard – we went 15 minutes of intensity to get ready for this game,” Walker said. “We knew that if we warmed up focused and we came prepared for the game and went after them – we would score pretty quickly because we did not want to go into PKs.”
“We had a really good session yesterday,” Berlin coach Tara Zimmer said. “You could tell they were ready to go. It was a quiet bus on the way here – they were ready to get it done.”
It was sudden, it was immediate and it was conclusive.
“They executed, obviously, a play that they had and we didn’t stop them,” BV coach Lucy Giddens said. “There’s nothing you can do about that. That’s a tough way to end it.”
Walker finished with two goals, including one that tied the game up 1-1 just over four minutes into the second half off a Kerekes centering feed from the left.
As for the other, Cara Susey found Olivia Neidhardt on a centering feed from the left to give Berlin a 2-1 lead with 26:24 left in regulation.
“I think that just shows teamwork,” Zimmer said. “It’s not just one person dribbling down and shooting. It’s always coming from someone else. That’s what we want to see as coaches.”
McKinley Hoffman had six saves in goal for the Bears (6-11), who have won three straight.
Liz Gedde had two assists for the sixth-seeded Barons. Hanna Fenstermaker got by the defense on the right and centered to Gedde in the middle, who touched left to Ellen Riley, who had a wide-open shot to give BV a 1-0 lead with 31:57 left in the first half.
Later, Gedde, from the right, fed Faith Durbin at the top of the box. Durbin touched twice and sent a liner in goal to knot things up 2-2 with 12:25 left to send it to overtime.
“I was really worried when that second goal happened … typically they tend to fold up,” Giddens said. “We battled back and I think we had them on the ropes in the overtime period Thursday.”
Crawford finished with five saves for the Barons (8-7-2).
Next up, Berlin travels to top-seeded Granville in the district semifinal Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Luke Sensky scored two goals to lead the top-seeded Olentangy Liberty boys soccer team to a 5-0 victory over visiting Delaware Hayes (7-8-3), seeded 23rd, in the second round of the Division I district tournament Saturday night in Powell.
Nathan Rothert, Jaggar Booker and Liam Garcia each added tallies for the Patriots, who host 12th-seeded Hilliard Darby Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in a district semifinal.
Olentangy 6, Marion Harding 0
Matt Celona had a pair of goals and Drew Clement added a tally and a helper to lead sixth-seeded Olentangy (12-4-2) to a 6-0 win over 48th-seeded Harding (2-13-2) in the second round of the Division I district tournament Saturday in Lewis Center.
Alec Heidl, Kyle Eddy and Ryan Skinner scored a goal apiece; Vik Hudson, Carson Griffth and Christian Bowens each had assists and Max Fidler had a pair of saves for Olentangy.
Parker Richards had 10 saves in goal for the Presidents.
Olentangy advances to the district semifinal round, hosting 21st-seeded Thomas Worthington Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
Columbus Academy 6, Buckeye Valley 0
Tyler Schlonsky scored the first of his two goals in the 34th minute to break the seal and David Barren added a pair of goals to open the second half. The second-seeded Vikings were just too much after that in a Division II second round game Saturday in Gahanna.
Colin Sullivan and Elias Marquez each added goals and Malcolm Klingbeil stopped one shot in goal for Academy, which hosts seventh-seeded Olentangy Berlin in a district semifinal Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
Cole Davis had seven saves and Jack Scheeler added four for the 11th-seeded Barons (9-6-2).
Olentangy Berlin 9, Licking Valley 0
Brendan Greenhalge had a hat trick and Landon Kuhn added two goals to lead the seventh-seeded Bears (6-8-4) to a lopsided win over 22nd-seeded Licking Valley in the second round of the Division II district tournament Saturday in Delaware.
Dominic Antronica, Alex Nicol, Mason Zamilski and Cody Collins each added goals to round out the scoring for Berlin.
Hilliard Davidson 3, Olentangy Orange 2
The Wildcats scored two second-half goals to break a 1-1 tie to end Orange’s season in the second round of the Division I district tournament Saturday night in Lewis Center.
Coby Stover, Sean Carrier and Charlie Riddle provided the goals and goalkeeper Lorenzo Nieves had seven saves for 22nd-seeded Davidson (6-10-2), which travels to fifth-seeded Dublin Coffman for a district semifinal Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
Joey Brooks and Richie Porrello found the back of the net and Alex Beck stopped seven shots in goal for the 16th-seeded Pioneers (7-7-3).
