Set-piece defending problematic for Rangers

78 seconds into the second half with a quality rightfooted strike.

Despite a solid defensive-third shape, promising attacking flow at times and good ideas with through balls to spring strikers, set piece defending was an issue, as North Ridgeville yielded twice off restarts.

“I take nothing away from Riverside — they are a great squad and wellcoached,” Rangers coach George Panagiotou said. “But I was not altogether happy with the effort today, to be honest. I think they did a great job taking advantage of weaknesses that we provided on transition and we did not provide the intensity and the hustle that I thought we needed to.”

Riverside, a two-time Division I district runner-up making the long trek from Lake County, fought back twice to equalize. In the 25th minute, center back Colin Shambaugh chipped a free kick in, and Adrian Morales took care of the finish far post.

Then in the 73rd, the Beavers generated a pair of corners and capitalized on the latter. On the first, Luke Hackney had a strike off the crossbar, but on the second, Hackney made no mistake with a right-footed effort near post.

“We don’t breed a lot of size, so we need to focus on good shape and focus on being aware of where potential threats are,” Panagiotou said. “We’ve got to step up on (set-piece defending), and if we don’t do that, we suffer the consequences.”