Beachwood Girls Soccer Finishes Strong

Freshmen Lexi Stovsky and Hannah Firestone each scored twice and the Lady Bison (7-8) sent their four seniors out on a high note with a 5-0 win over Berkshire (1-11-1).

“After a frustrating week or so they got a lot off of their chest,” coach Art Skupniewicz said. “Any issues we had were all mental it was just a matter of figuring things out for themselves and remembering how strong they are.”

Part of that frustration was yet another injury to the team, this one to freshman goalie Alex Mintz, who broke her thumb. Senior Carly Wohlfeiler started the past three games and against Berkshire recorded four saves on six shots.

“We haven’t had our strongest starting 11 out there since preseason,” Skupniewicz said. “Carly has helped us out big time.”

Beachwood struck first when Stovsky created space on the wing and sent a great crossing pass through the box for an easy tap in by Firestone.

“We had a very hard time marking,” Berkshire coach Tony Scibelli said. “We have a tendency to gravitate towards the ball. We also did a lot of kickball where we just turned and kicked. We didn’t try to set anything up.”

Stovsky weaved around defenders creating space on the right wing again at the 31 minute mark and sent a beautiful, indefensible, shot into the high left corner of the net putting Beachwood up 2-0. Less than a minute later, Firestone stormed down the field and took advantage of a defensive breakdown that left her one-on-one with the goalie for an easy shot.

Stovsky added another goal five minutes into the second half and almost hooked a free kick around a wall of defenders later in the game. Julia Winkeler added the fifth goal with 19 minutes left in the game when she taped in Firestone's corner kick.

Berkshire keeper Beth Sebrasky was busy for the Badgers, recording five saves on 12 Beachwood shots.

“We had the confidence to spread the ball around,” Skupniewicz said. “We maintained possession and good things happen when you do that.”

Beachwood begins their postseason at the sectional tournament next Wednesday against Gilmour Academy at 4:30 p.m.

Editor's Note: The original version of this article misspelled Lexi Stovsky's name.