The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Avon blanks Westlake
Eagles score first goal three minutes into match; Magnificat on deck
It took Avon three minutes to score its first goal of the 2020 postseason.
In the 77 minutes that followed in the Eagles’ Division II sectional final against Westlake on Oct. 22, they showed why they’re one of the area’s balanced teams, as the Eagles dominated the Demons en route to a 3-0 win.
Avon advances to face Magnificat — which defeated Avon Lake, 1-0, in their sectional final matchup — on Oct. 26 in a district semifinal.
“We have a really dynamic group,” Avon coach Attila Csiszar said. “We needed to come out from warmups to the first whistle and play a complete game and I think we did that tonight.”
The Eagles’ early goal came off one of their biggest strengths
— set pieces.
“When you get an early goal like that it sets the tone and I think we set the tone. It was nice. After Avon was awarded a free kick from 45 yards out, Ela Kisin sent a free kick into the ball that landed perfectly on Abby Koly, who calmly headed it in.
“When you get an early goal like that it sets the tone and I think we set the tone,” Csiszar said. “It was nice.”
The Eagles tallied one more goal in the first half in the 16th minute, when Catie Geiger handled a long ball and back tapped a pass to Meredith Coloian, who sank a shot into the net. The second half was more of the same for Avon, as the Eagles scored their final goal in the 49th minute on a header by Nyah Snezek off a pass from Arya Singh.
In addition to winning on the scoreboard, Avon’s defense and midfield dominated for the full 80 minutes, snuffing out seemingly every Westlake attack before it could get started, with Coloian, Geiger and Kisin corralling everything in the middle.
“I told the girls to just attack them every second and every minute,” Csiszar said. “They did a good job of closing down players and winning the 50/50 balls. We won every ball in the air.”
After defeating Euclid, 10-0, in a sectional semifinal, Westlake bows out of the playoffs at the hands of a Southwestern Conference foe.
“Hats off to them, they’re a good team,” Westlake coach Dane Rimko said. “We knew what we were in for. We knew they were good on set pieces and we gave up a set piece goal in the opening minutes. That’s frustrating because who knows if it’s a different game is that doesn’t happen.”
Despite the season not ending how he wanted, Rimko is proud of how his
team fought back after the start of their season as delayed due to the novel coro
navirus pandemic.
“Soccer’s a mental game,” he said. “We were playing
against ourselves for two months and then we had to stop and start. It was a different atmosphere, but they made it seem as a normal as possible.