Patriots Advance To District Championship With 1-0 Victory Over Hilliard Bradley & Season Notes (10/22/13)

Pattys Move On To District Semi-Final With 9-0 Win Over Logan (10/17/13)
October 17, 2013
Patriots Season Ends In Overtime At District Championship (10/26/13)
October 27, 2013
Pattys Move On To District Semi-Final With 9-0 Win Over Logan (10/17/13)
October 17, 2013
Patriots Season Ends In Overtime At District Championship (10/26/13)
October 27, 2013

The Lady Patriots faced a very talented Hilliard Bradley Jaguars (#10 seed) this evening in the District Semi-Final, which was a rematch of an earlier season battle that resulted in a 0-0 draw on Bradley’s home turf.

In the regular season matchup, the 10-4-3 Jaguars, led by Coach Dan Hoover, had the better of possession and the Patriots had trouble with their strong, well coached, senior led back line and physical style of play. However, the Patriots adjusted in tonight’s Playoff rematch, controlled possession, put the Jaguars on the defensive and notched a 1-0 shutout victory to advance to the Central Region, District 4 Championship on Saturday at Gahanna High School (neutral site) at 2:00PM vs. Bishop Watterson.

Check out the updated Central Region bracket at https://brackets.ohsaa.org/regionalbracket.aspx?t=4165&ts=9449&not=4https://brackets.ohsaa.org/regionalbracket.aspx?t=4146&ts=9432%AC=4 where all four top seeds in the region (Coffman, Pick North, Davidson, Liberty) have advanced to their respective District Championship matches.

Liberty had a strong chance in the early minutes of the match when Kylie Slusser beat three Jaguars to the endline, crossed the ball and a couple Patriot shots failed to find the open net.  For the next 20 minutes, each team’s defenses kept the other from seeing too many chances, but with 12 minutes remaining in the first half, Senior Captain Erin Walters started a counter-attack up the left flank playing a ball to Kylie Slusser‘s feet. Slusser redirected the ball to Natalie Flahive who cut the ball back across the middle of the field, beat two Jaguar defenders and buried a bomb from 25+ yards into the Upper 90 to score what would turn out to be the winning goal. Walters and Slusser were both credited with assists on the goal. The goal was Flahive’s 20th of the season, which is believed to rank second in Lady Patriots Soccer history only to Ashley Elsass’ 26 goals in  a previous season.

Miranda Kuhns registered three saves in net for the Pattys, none bigger than a deflected high ball off a shot from distance late in the second half that looked like it was headed for the equalizer.

As the Lady Patriots turn their full attention to the District final matchup with Watterson, here are some other “notable notes” from the season to date.

  • The Patriots registered their 9th shutout of the season tonight. The Pattys have allowed only 17 goals in 18 games.
  • The Patriots have scored 69 goals this season, with Natalie Flahive (20 goals) and Julia Bruno (12 goals) leading the way with double digit scoring. Fifteen(15) Pattys have scored goals this seasonand a total of eight (8) have three goals or more!  In addition to Flahive and Bruno, the six other players with 3+ goals are Kylie Slusser (3), Katie Kill (4), Lizzie Castro (6), Emma Ranalli (4), Sarina Dirrig (7) and Hailey Pickelheimer (3).
  • Center Backs Katie Best (Junior) and Emma Waters (Sophomore), and Defensive Center Mid Emma Ranalli (Junior Captain) lead the Patriots in minutes played for the season, having started all 18 games and played the duration of all but a handful of matches.
  • The Pattys have 57 assists through 18 games, and six players have 6+ assists, including Natalie Flahive (10), Emma Ranalli (8), Julia Bruno (7), Kylie Slusser (6), Lizzie Castro (6) and Emma Waters (6).
  • With a current record of 11-2-5, the Patriots will finish the season with the least losses in program history, and have a chance to surpass the program record for wins.
  • The combined records of the Varsity, JVA and JVB teams to date are 36 wins, 4 losses and 9 draws, and Liberty has outscored their opponents by a margin of 172 to 38.

Great job so far, but there is still work to be done!  Let’s rally players, families, friends and the community to come out and support your Pattys in their quest for the district championship vs. Watterson at Gahanna HS on Saturday at 2:00PM!

GO PATRIOTS!!!!!!!

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