By Cort Reynolds

VAN BUREN __ The visiting Ada High School girls soccer team led at halftime but fell 2-1 at Van Buren in their North Central Ohio Soccer Association lidlifter Thursday, September 5.

The defeat knocked the Bulldogs from the unbeaten ranks. Their records fall to 5-1 overall and 0-1 in NCOSA play. 

VB improved to 3-4 overall and 1-0 in NCOSA action after the win.

Ada senior Lexi Poling scored the game’s first goal off an assist by freshman Emily Shanks. The Bulldog girls took a 1-0 lead to intermission.

But VB scored two goals in the second half to rally and hand Ada its first defeat of the season.

“It was an off night for us,” said Ada head coach Doug Dewese. “We once again out-shot a team, but couldn’t finish by putting the ball in the net. A lot of outside factors played in, like a young team dealing with physical play, sickness that had run through the team this week, among other factors outside the players’ control.

“I think we played pretty hard and had a decent game all things considered, just not enough to pull out the win,” he added.

Bulldog freshman keeper Emily Gibson stopped seven of the nine Knight shots on goal.

Ada visits non-league foe Delphos St. John’s (3-3) Monday, September 9 at 5 p.m.

“We will bounce back Monday and push to get back to winning ways,” said Dewese. “We have some very tough games coming up like Riverdale, Liberty-Benton and Columbus Grove, so we need to bounce back quick.

“It was just not our night,” he added.

The Ada girls are in the midst of a five-game road swing.