By Cort Reynolds
The visiting Bluffton High School girls soccer team defeated league rival Ada 9-0 in a Northwest Conference match on a cool Monday, September 26, under the lights at War Memorial Park Stadium.
The Bulldog girls fell to 4-6 overall and 0-4 in NWC action following their sixth straight defeat.
The win upped the Pirate record to 10-2 overall and 5-0 in NWC play, keeping them in first place ahead of Columbus Grove (3-0 NWC).
"This was a Bluffton team with a bunchof seniors who have played together a long time, so a rough night was to be expected," said Ada head coach Doug Dewese.
"We had really good streaks where we held them in check, but we couldn't do that for 80 minutes against a team of this caliber," he added.
Neither team scored for the first 16 minutes. Junior keeper Katie Sizemore made a diving save for Ada at the 24-minute mark.
But 52 seconds later, the Pirates broke the ice. Allison Diller fired a right side shot that Sizemore deflected, but senior Jasi Crawfis pounced on the rebound and knocked it in for a 1-0 lead.
Pirate sophomore Jordyn O'Connell then lofted a shot into the right corner of the goal past a lunging Sizemore for a 2-0 edge with 21:04 left in the half.
Ada cleared a loose ball nicely in front of the net at nine minutes to keep the margin at two.
At the 8:23 mark, the Pirate Riley Eachus re-directed a Sami Scoles corner kick with a one-timer boot that found the back of the net for a 3-0 cushion.
Sizemore made a nice save at the 6:05 juncture.
Senior Scoles then got a breakaway and tallied a chip shot at the 5:05 mark. Sizemore made a diving save a minute later.
Diller then fed Scoles with a nice pass, and Scoles scored from four yards out in the 37th minute for a 5-0 lead.
With 2:57 left in the half, senior Eachus rolled in a 13-yarder off a Karson Hauenstein assist to extend the lead to 6-0.
Diller then converted a nice running shot from Hauenstein with 61 seconds to go in the half.
Diller tacked on two more goals early in the second half to provide the final margin. She tallied an unassisted goal with 32:38 left in the game to make it
8-0. Then at the 30:54 mark, she scored her third goal.
The Pirate girls directed 16 of their 27 shots on goal. The Bulldogs did not put any shots on goal.
Pirate goalkeepers Julia Mehaffie and Kynzie Ewing did not have to make a save as the defense posted the shutout. Meanwhile, Ada keeper Sizemore was credited with seven stops.
Ada (0-3 NCOSA) plays at Cory-Rawson (2-7-1, 0-3 NCOSA) Wednesday evening, then hosts Van Wert (0-10) Saturday at 10 a.m.
