By Cort Reynolds
ADA __ The Ada High School girls soccer team got back on the winning track with a decisive 3-0 victory over visiting non-league foe Lima Senior Monday, September 16, at War Memorial Stadium.
The purple and gold improved to 6-4 overall with the convincing win.
The Spartans fell to 4-4 after the loss.
Ada controlled ball possession throughout and had numerous good scoring chances that were saved or narrowly went awry. The Bulldogs pulled away with three second half goals to win comfortably.
“It was good to get back in the win column,” said Ada head coach Doug Dewese. “We dominated the stats sheet with 24 shots to zero for them.
“Lima had a talented keeper and a strong back line or this could have gotten ugly,” he continued. “It took us to the second half to get traction and score some goals.
“We have struggled to find our roots that we started the season with through our road stint,” he continued, with Ada having played five straight away matches. “Those ‘roots’ were possession and patience in finding good shots.
“That seemed to come back to us in the second half, and we spent a lot of time in their end thanks to it,” he noted.
The Spartan keeper made a nice diving save on a shot headed toward the lower right corner with 28:44 left in the first half. Ada’s Lexi Poling fired a shot off the crossbar a minute later.
Powerful Bulldog freshman Rose Baxter put a left-footed shot on goal that was saved at the 24:15 mark. At 22:44 freshman Emily Shanks made a good throw-in from the right corner that Kenley Poling almost knocked into the net in front of the goal, but the shot was saved.
A very good curling corner by junior Alex Gibson was snared out of the air by the Spartan keeper at the 17:30 juncture. With 15:55 to go another Gibson corner sailed high toward the net, but was grabbed by the lunging goalie.
Gibson took a nice pass with 7:11 left yet kicked it just over the goal. A long Bulldog free kick sailed wide at the 4:44 mark. A Shanks shot was saved off a good cross at the 2:47 point.
Gibson suffered a shoe malfunction and Shanks subbed in for her early in half two. She immediately stole a throw-in pass and fed Kenley Poling nicely in stride along the left side.
Poling then ripped a hard left-footed shot from about 15 yards out over the outstretched LS keeper into the top center of the net to put Ada on top 1-0 with 36:33 left. Shanks earned the assist with her timely entrance and good steal/pass.
A hard shot by Shanks from 21 yards out was saved two minutes later. Shanks uncorked another long shot that missed wide 30 seconds later.
Fine consecutive passes by senior Karley Wagner and freshman Aliyah Kober set up Kenley Poling for another scoring opportunity that went wide with 33:12 to go.
Lexi Poling had a good shot deflected by a marking Spartan defender with 31:50 remaining. With 31 minutes to go, Shanks drilled a 25-yard shot that slammed off the crossbar and bounced straight down, just missing a goal.
Kober fed Kenley Poling nicely for a 13-yard shot that was saved 30 ticks later.
Lima Senior had its lone scoring opportunity nullified at the 28:02 juncture by being called off sides. Wagner launched a 35-yard shot at the 25-minute mark that was caught by the keeper.
Ada junior Alyssa Nau came in and made a touch feed to Gibson, who shot it into the low right corner of the net to double the Bulldog lead to 2-0 at the 24:33 mark.
Three minutes later, Gibson’s shot from 27 yards out went just a couple feet wide left. A left-footed shot by Gibson from 20 yards out was saved with 15:45 left. A shot by Shanks was deflected out of play with 10:32 remaining.
Shanks then took a pass from Chloe Hunsicker and boomed a 35-yard shot into the right corner of the net with 7:38 left to extend the final margin to 3-0.
Ada out-shot LS, 24-0. The busy Spartan keeper was credited with 21 saves in goal.
Bulldog freshman keeper Emily Gibson did not have to save a single shot in goal. The lone good Spartan shot attempt was negated in half two by an off-sides whistle.
“Paul has a good program at Senior and it’s a far cry from where they were two years ago, so I can’t be disappointed about a 3-0 win,” Dewese admitted. “Paul said he’s got a decent group of experienced players and they have a decent record also, so it is a good win.
“If we ever get consistent with our shooting and hitting the back of the net, we could be a pretty scary team,” he warned.
Ada (0-2 NCOSA) hosts perennial league power Liberty-Benton (5-3-1, 2-0 NCOSA) Wednesday evening at 7 p.m.
“History says it will be a tough one; they may be down a little bit this year but for them that doesn’t mean a lot,” said the coach of L-B. “They reload every year with a deep and talented roster.
“We are at home, coming off a win and finding a few things working for us,” he continued. “We should compete with them if we can be aggressive and not let little mistakes bite us, which is sometimes difficult for a young team.
”We need to be competitive for 80 minutes and not let our guard down at all,” he added. “If we can keep it tight til the end, maybe we can pull out a surprise or two for them.”
