- Athletics
- Girls Soccer
Medina stops our Comets
Lady Comets go toe-to-toe with #1 ranked Medina but come up short
Last night was Comets for the Cure Night and Senior Night at Stewart Field. The Comets had the biggest crowd since opening night and SETV was there to broadcast the game as well.
Between the JV and Varsity games, the Comets honored our four seniors: Miranda Carlton, Taylor Ellman, Juliana Kontul, and Sydney Kowit. Per Comets tradition, their teammates made a banner for each senior and the seniors and parents were introduced and presented with flowers.
Miranda was escorted by her parents, Bobbi and Matt, and her sister Sydney who is a freshman on the JV team and a backup goalie on Varsity. Taylor was escorted by her parents, Erik and Renee, and her sister Jordan, who is a freshman on the JV team. Juliana was escorted by her parents, Dean and Judy, as well as her sister Angelene, who is a sophomore on the Varsity squad. Finally, Sydney Kowit was escorted by her parents, David and Lori.
With the Senior Night festivities out of the way, the Comets got down to business against the Medina Bees, who are undefeated and ranked #1 in Ohio. Coach Wilson cooked up a unique 5-4-1 formation to deal with the Bees duo of Nelson and Anspach, who have 30 goals between them this year. And the formation and the Comets’ execution on the field worked like a charm in the first half with the Comets back line of Avani Pham, Mayah Morgan, Miranda Carlton, Farren Lesko, and Jackie Rzepka with help from Angelene Kontul frustrating the visitors.
Even though the focus was defensive, the Comets were able to create some opportunities in the first half and actually outshot the Bees in that half. The midfield of Carley Goldberg, Alli Maersch, Jamie Simmerson and Juliana Kontul with help from Macarah Morgan did a nice job of advancing the ball and Taylor Ellman (who got her first career Varsity start) and Nicollee Hammer were the Comets strikers last night with freshman Hailyn Shuster also getting some minutes.
After a scoreless first half, Medina came out firing in the second half and definitely ramped up their intensity. The Comets matched them blow for blow and Comets goalie Syd Kowit had a phenomenal game stopping 14 Medina shots. Kowit’s performance in this game stood out as she stopped a number of point-blank shots, made several diving saves, and picked seemingly every Medina corner kick out of the air. As the clock ran late into the second half, frustration was increasing in the Medina team (and bench, which drew a warning from the referee).
With only 14 minutes left, Medina junior midfielder Claire Miko got free on the left side and, in a tremendous individual effort, worked her way through the Comets backline all the way to the top of the 6-yard box where she smacked the ball past a diving Kowit at point-blank range into the right corner of the north goal.
The Comets mounted several attacks and had a free kick and a corner kick in the last few minutes, but couldn’t get the equalizer. All in all, this was one of the most exciting Comets games this year and to a person, everyone played extremely hard and extremely well.
JV Drops a Tough One
Earlier in the evening, the JV Comets lost 2-1 to Medina’s JV-A team. The Comets goal was scored by Olivia Cole. After Cole knotted the game for the Comets, Medina came right back 2 minutes later and scored the game winner. The Comets JV is an impressive 7-5-1 on the year.
The Comets have 2 regular season games left. They travel to North Royalton on Monday, October 8 and then close against Euclid on Wednesday, October 10.