'It feels really good': Orrville girls soccer program gets first varsity home win
ORRVILLE — There was nothing that could get in the way of the Orrville girls soccer team and a date with destiny on Thursday night. For years, the girls of Orrville had clamored for their own team, something that they could call their own.
And Thursday night, it all came to fruition.
Mother Nature and Coventry both tried to get in the way but in the end, it was the Red Riders locking up a 6-0 win on Heartland Field at Red Rider Stadium.
"It feels really good," said freshman Emma Brede. "I feel like we are setting our program up at a good spot and a high varsity level."
"Amazing," said junior midfielder Val Gonzalez-Quinteros about the win. "We have improved so much and it's showing up on the field. We are going to continue to progress as the season goes on and there is more to come."
Orrville wasted no time getting on the board as Brede tapped one inside the right post just 43 seconds into the contest. Brede was in the right spot at the right time at 21:09 when a defender attempted to clear the ball across the face of the net and the freshman was there to poke it home. Two minutes later, Natalie Miller took a deflection on the left side of the box and made it 3-0 Red Riders when she knocked it home.
Five minutes into the second half, Dayanara Lopez-Irias took ball that bounced free from the goalkeeper and tapped it in. Brede than capped a hat trick when she took a pass from Caileigh Chereson off the right wing and rocketed it into the net.
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"It feels good, and I like how we are connecting well on the pitch," said Brede. "My teammates are doing a great job in setting me up for good shots and I am just staying calm, not getting nervous or anxious and tell myself, to play like you know what you're doing."
Her coach couldn't be happier as he's seen Brede improve already.
"She is great, has a strong left foot, is tough, good with the ball at her feet and can shoot from range," said Stuart. "She is a very good player and very confident in herself."
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"Emma (Brede) is amazing," added Gonzalez-Quinteros. "She helps so much on the field, is so humble and does so much for the team."
Chereson capped the locals scoring with a strike at 13:56 left in the game as Orville polished off a dominating win over the Comets.
"It was good team performance, and I am really happy a lot of freshmen got to contribute," said Stuart. "We had good goal scoring, really happy with our overall game, good job maintaining possession throughout, getting a shutout and our first home win in program history, that's very exciting."
The Red Riders improved to 2-0-1 on the season with a commanding 19-1 advantage in shots on goal and a 27-1 edge in total shots. A big key to the Riders' success was the play in the center of the pitch where Gonzales helped set the pace and led the way with some next-level passing.
"If the other team doesn't have the ball, they can't score," said Gonzalez-Quinteros. "So, we want to maintain possession, look for our drops, don't risk the ball too much, but also make those runs and use the safe space on the field.
"Our chemistry is really incredible, and everybody gets along with everybody. We communicate with each other, if there is mistake, we will fix it and at the end of the day, getting mad at each other, won't fix anything, that's why we lift each other up."
"We still have a long way to go, but we've done pretty good so far," added Brede.
Stuart expounded even further afterward.
"This group is so special, and we will only lose one next year and we are going to miss her," he said. "But we will get most of the whole group back again, and that's really exciting. Today is really just about these girls and the work that they have put in and the work that Will and Brittany Armentrout have put into the youth program."
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Girls Soccer: Orrville wins first varsity home game
