Quakers make run at district title
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SALEM -- Salem’s girls soccer team put in the work on Tuesday in its Div. IV district semifinal against Northwest to make sure there was a whole lot more work on Saturday.
Sophomore defender Nora Shean went into an attacking position late in the game to score the Quakers’ game winner with 4:21 left as Salem moved on with a 1-0 win.
As of Monday night, the 10th-seeded Quakers (13-5-1) are set to play No. 5 Warren JFK (14-4) at noon on Saturday in the district final at Green Memorial Stadium in Uniontown.
There is a problem, though.
Five Quaker soccer players are supposed to be in Boardman for a regional cross country race set for 1:40 p.m. on Saturday.
Salem girls soccer coach Greg Davis said the school will ask for a soccer game time change on Saturday to accommodate the cross country runners.
Green Memorial Stadium will also host the No. 6 Perry-No. 11 Cardinal Mooney district final at 3 p.m. Davis said those district finals were originally scheduled for 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., so he’s hoping the Quakers can get a time slot around 5 p.m. to make sure the cross country runners on the soccer team -- Addison Hopple, Emily Sinsley, Chaya Murray, Ali Herrold and Alicea Davis -- can make both events.
In the event that Halloween complicates scheduling matters in later time windows or the Ohio High School Athletic Association won’t budge, the Quakers may have to make some choices.
“We will address that when we cross that bridge,” Davis said.
For those running on Saturday at Boardman, the prospect of having two high-profile events in one day is no problem.
“We do both every day, so it’s nothing new,” Hopple said.
With a lot of miles on their legs, the Quakers feel like they have the conditioning available to qualify for state in cross country and win the district final.
“Aside from the cross girls, our soccer team just conditions a lot in the summer,” Emily Sinsley said. “To play 80 minutes and some more if needed, you need to be conditioned.”
Against Northwest, the Quakers controlled much of the play and didn’t allow for any really potent Indian attacks.
“I think we did really well today and we had a lot of switch-outs too,” Hopple said. “It was obviously nice bringing Nora up because I feel like she doesn’t go up a lot.”
Right before she scored the winning goal, Shean had a chance to feed Murray for a game-winner but it didn’t materialize. A few seconds later she had the ball again and was able to use some clever footwork to clear the keeper’s hands and get the ball in the back of the net.
“I put her up top before,” Davis said. “I know what she’s capable of. She has great ball control and she has a nose for a goal when needed and I had a feeling if she had an opportunity she’s going to bury one.”
It was Shean’s fifth goal of the season.
“I don’t know what happened, I was just running,” Shean said about her goal.
Slightly gassed from a busy day at the office, Shean didn’t have much else to say about the goal other than she knew it was over once it went in.
“There was a lot of running today and I was glad it was over,” Shean said.
In the sectional final, the Quakers went to overtime to beat Berkshire. Shean made sure that wasn’t going to happen again.
Earlier in the game, the Quakers only had one really good chance when Murray had a point blank shot at goal with 13:50 left in the first half but Northwest’s Addie Horsfall made a stellar save on the ball.
Salem goalkeeper Layla Hewitt had four saves.
MATCH NOTES
• Salem played Warren JFK in late June in a preseason kick-off event at Springfield Local High School. The game only went 40 minutes, but JFK won 2-1.
• Northwest, the 14th seed, ended its season at 9-8-1.
• JFK beat Woodridge 8-0 on Tuesday to earn its spot in the district final.