SHOOTING THROUGH TRAFFIC — Big Red’s Bailee Beall fired a shot from distance as Oak Glen’s Giada Giambroni during Thursday game at Harding Stadium. – Andrew Grimm
STEUBENVILLE — In years past, Anni Cutri noted its taken her Big Red girls soccer teams a little while to get going.
That has not been the case this year.
Big Red started strong, broke through for three first half goals and did not let up on the way to a 5-1 victory Thursday night at Harding Stadium, improving its early season mark to 3-0.
“In past seasons it would take us a while to get warmed up or we would drop off towards the middle of the game … this team hung tough for 80 minutes and did not let up,” Cutri said. “I’m so impressed with their ball movement and how that resulted in great finishes for us.”
Bailee Beall had two goals, including the opener, and two assists, Gianna Thomas tallied a pair of goals and Lucy Saccoccia contributed three assists for the Crimson and Black.
All five goals were assisted on and were the result of good passing, something that is already shaping up to be a strength for Cutri’s club.
“That’s been something we’ve been really working on in practice and it’s showing,” Cutri added. “(Oak Glen) had five in the back, so for them to be able to move the ball the way they did is pretty awesome.
“It shows a lot of unselfishness. Normally we have to tell players to pass … we’re telling them to be a little more selfish and take a shot if they have it.”
After controlling the possession for the majority of the time, Big Red broke through for a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute as Saccoccia got the ball to Beall and she fired a shot just under the crossbar.
Thomas scored on a long shot about two minutes later after being fed the ball by Beall to make it 2-0.
Then, after Beall had hit the crossbar, Saccoccia made a nice pass to her once again and this time Beall found the twine in the 36th minute, making it 3-0 at halftime.
Oak Glen came out a little better in the second half, getting some possession time of its own early on, but, after Steubenville keeper Madilyn Thacker made an impressive save at one end, Aubrey Duggan fired the fourth goal of the night into the net at the other with just under eight minutes to play.
The Golden Bears (1-1) did get on the scoreboard with an Angelina Polly goal on a free kick with a little more than six minutes to play, but Thomas connected in the final minute for Big Red to provide the final margin.
“It’s tough when you get down early against a good team,” Oak Glen head coach Bill Watts said. “We’re a pretty new team, we have a couple starters that haven’t played before this year … we’re going to develop and get better. We played much better in the second half. Give Steubenville a lot of credit, they played a very good first half. We made some adjustments and were a little better in the second half.
“If we keep improving through the year, we’ll get there.”
Big Red is slated to host St. Clairsville on Tuesday, while Oak Glen travels to Tyler Consolidated on Saturday.
Boys open victorious
Earlier in the evening, the Big Red boys soccer rolled in its season opener at Harding Stadium to begin the campaign victorious.
Coach Greg Bowers’ club got goals from seven different players on the way to an 8-0 victory over visiting East Liverpool.
Landon Bowers tallied a pair of goals and Daniel Aguilera added a goal and three assists to help lead the onslaught. Hayden Hicks, Luke Dinovo, Josiah Rea, Gabe Martin and Nate Chipps also tallied goals for Steubenville, while Drew Stimpert had a pair of assists and Ethan Llewellyn had an assist.
Robby Lucas needed just one save to keep the Potters off the board, while East Liverpool’s Dom Johnson made 15 stops.
Big Red travels to Cambridge on Saturday.
