Defensive player turns tables to score only goal in Dover's sweep

NEW PHILADELPHIA — The sweep is complete.

The Dover High School girls’ soccer team completed a season sweep of arch-rival New Philadelphia after posting a hard-earned 1-0 win over the Quakers at New Philadelphia’s Southside Community Park field Wednesday night.

The Crimson Tornadoes also defeated the Quakers, 3-0 earlier in the season.

It was a “Kick for the Cause” event for cancer awareness and both teams wore pink and white game t-shirts with the words, “Rivals for the Cause.”

In a match in which both Tornadoes and Quakers played outstanding defense, it was Dover’s Ava Zobel who created her own personal highlight when she rocketed what turned out to be the game-winner into the back of the net with 18:23 left in the match.

“I was hoping to get up front (on offense) the whole game, and thought today was the day,” recalled Zobel. “Then, when I got in, I said, well, I have to (take the shot) and I just took my touch and it went in.”

Dover head coach James Kline plays Zobel primarily on defense, but added she's so athletically gifted that she got her chance at the offensive end and made the most of it.

“She’s our starting center back and she might be a forward at heart,” said the Dover head coach. “She’s a phenomenal defender, but she’s very athletic and she brings a spark, so she always jokes about coming up top and scoring goals. We needed a goal and she got a chance. I think it was 30 seconds after coming in, she got the goal. A great coaching move, right,” smiled Kline.

Zobel said it was her first-ever game-winning boot.

“I was really hoping (the shot would go in),” said the Dover junior. “I knew I had space and I knew there was enough time for me to get it, so I just tried it. I think we were connecting really well, I just think the shots weren’t falling, but we’re lucky one did fall.”

Both teams were impressive on defense.

“Bend but don’t break is our philosophy,” said New Philadelphia coach Anthony Wahlie. “Obviously, they (the Tornadoes) have a ton of talent and I thought we matched well. I had to craft a system tonight that we knew would kind of match up with them and their personnel group, and I thought we did it well. The girls played excellent from the first minute to the 80th, and unfortunately, it just didn’t go our way.”

Dover led in shots on goal, 10-2.

“In a rivalry everyone’s going to play their best game, so it’s just two hard-fought teams playing to try and win a game,” Kline said.

With the win, Dover raised its record to 10-4-2.

“I really want us to win districts again, like we did last year, and hopefully get into the regionals and hopefully win,” said Zobel.

The two teams played outstanding defense in a scoreless first half. Dover controlled much of the action and had three shots on goal to the Quakers’ one in the opening 40 minutes. The Tornadoes also had five corner kicks to one for New Philadelphia.

“This game is a huge game for all the girls in the community, so we were trying to find a way to play this game,” said Kline of moving the match from its original Saturday date to Wednesday due to New Philadelphia having a tournament match on Saturday.

“This community game is always a fun rivalry,” said Kline. “Best of luck to Philly in the tournament — if they win their east district and we win our east district, we might see each other for a third time.”

The Tornadoes have a final regular-season game Thursday at Wooster against a strong Generals’ team.

“We have a tough game (Thursday) against a Wooster team that’s beaten some of the teams that have beaten us,” noted Kline. “We’re going to have our hands full, so we’ve got to rest, get back to school, get on the bus and head to Wooster.”

Dover is also the third seed in the upcoming Division II sectional tournament and drew a first-round bye. The Tornadoes will play the winner of No. 13 seed Coshocton vs. No. 16 seed Harrison Central for a sectional title on Thursday, Oct. 19 at 4:30 p.m. in Dover.

New Philadelphia is the No. 15 seed in the Division II sectional tournament and will play No. 9 seeded Carrollton on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Carrollton.

“We started with a win against Massillon and then we’ve had some injury issues, but I’m proud of all of our girls,” said New Philadelphia’s Wahlie. “We’ve held through some crazy times this year, but at the end of the day they’ve done all I’ve asked of them.”

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Dover sweeps New Philadelphia in girls' soccer rivalry