The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
CARDS STAND TALL IN THE SECOND HALF
Mentor advances to district final
The moment Mentor arguably found itself as a side this fall is easy to pinpoint.
It was likely around 9 p.m. Oct. 5 after a scoreless draw with visiting Avon.
That completed the best regular-season stretch the Cardinals have logged in recent memory, beating West Geauga and Mayfield, tying Medina and blanking the Eagles.
Now Mentor, with belief firmly instilled, finds itself back in the hunt for a regional berth, seeking an elusive breakthrough.
Emma Potter opened her side’s account i n the 48th minute,
Alyssa Blackburn iced the result in the 77th and the Cardinals’ defensive-third play was outstanding to see out a 2-0 win over Solon in a Division I district semifinal.
Mentor (8-7-4) will travel to Massillon Jackson for D-I’s Northeast 2 District final at 6 p.m. Oct. 29, seeking its first district title since 2013.
“They have been improving all year,” Cardinals coach Ken Skilton said. “We kind of changed up the system and changed, really, a lot of things on how I want them to play.
“And they just keep getting in better shape and working hard and are able to play the way that I want to see. We play that high pressure up top, working with numbers when we get the ball and defending with numbers when we don’t have the ball and just working really hard.
“I am so proud of them.” Locked in a 0-0 match in a steady rain against a side in the Comets (6
6-3) to which it lost in the regular season, Mentor showed glimpses of promise in the attack in the opening 40.
But it was a moment of brilliance from Potter that yielded the separator.
In the 48th minute, the senior striker found herself in traffic with three Solon players in tow. Needing to turn the corner on the backline, Potter sensed daylight impeccably with a brilliant pacey touch paired with her 400-meter speed from track and field season, dribbled in and slotted a strike near post for her 15th goal
of the fall.
It felt like a 1-0 match for much of the evening, and the Cardinals made Potter’s strike stand well past the hour mark with a laudable and organized performance in the back.
“We knew from our last game — we lost to them, 1-0 — we knew they had some speed up top and two really solid forwards,” Mentor junior defender Abby Piks said. “We knew they play a sweeper style, and that kind of works for them. We’ve been playing that a little bit throughout the season, too. So we decided to
go with that for the game. Hopefully, with me in the back and our other speed and strength there, we can outrun them and beat them to the ball.”
Blackburn capped an unselfish bit of combo work by her side around the box in the 77th with a finish for her fifth goal of 2020 for the final margin.
The moment belief was truly instilled arguably came around 9 p.m. Oct. 5 — and exactly three weeks later, around the exact same time, the Cardinals found themselves exactly where they want to be.