Woodmore players celebrate after defeating Eastwood in a district semifinal match Tuesday at Genoa High School in Genoa, Ohio.
Scott W. Grau | Sentinel-Tribune
GENOA — Woodmore girls soccer proved the old adage, “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a season,” is true when the Wildcats beat Eastwood, 2-1, during a Division III district semifinal Tuesday.
Only, Woodmore’s inability to defeat Eastwood goes back much further — at least a half decade. Eastwood has won five straight Northern Buckeye Conference crowns, and during that time, no NBC team has been able to beat the Eagles in league or tournament action.
During some of those seasons, the Wildcats fell to the Eagles three times, including two league games and a tournament game. Not this year.
This year, the Eagles did defeat the Wildcats twice in league play (2-1 and 1-0), but the Wildcats found a way to reverse the trend at Genoa High School’s soccer complex Tuesday.
Woodmore, 12-3-1, advances to Saturday’s noon district final at Genoa. Eastwood, which was ranked 14th in the final state coaches’ poll, suffered its first loss and saw its season end at 15-1-2.
“(It was) a phenomenal season,” Eastwood first-year coach Julie Cross said. “Our freshmen did not know what a loss felt like until right now.
“A credit to our upperclassmen, especially to our class of five seniors, and three of them are captains. They committed at the beginning of the year that this year was going to be different.”
The last four years Eastwood played behind a talented 2021 senior class, many of them playing collegiately now. However, this year’s team kept the winning tradition alive.
“We were going to prove the doubters wrong, and they absolutely did that,” Cross said. “It was an unfortunate way to end the season, but we’ve got to give credit to Woodmore.
“They played a great game. It’s tough to beat a team three times, and they proved that tonight.”
Eastwood senior defender Kayden Firsdon, who played a key role in Eastwood’s first goal Tuesday, said this year’s team had to learn the hard way how to succeed without multiple all-state players returning.
“What makes this team click is there is a better culture and overall team energy that comes with not just these players, but players who have played together for years,” Firsdon said.
“We come together more now that the wins are even more important for us this year than they may have been the past three years.”
Senior midfielder Hannah Montag said this year’s seniors were fortunate to play behind last year’s seniors. She added the seniors were grateful to play collectively with their current teammates for multiple seasons.
“A lot of these girls have been playing together for three or four years. We work well together,” Montag said.
“We play a good brand of soccer with our passing game. We work to really connect the ball, work on not being selfish and working the ball around and doing what is best for the team and creating scoring opportunities.”
Woodmore coach Jeff Helmke had to remind himself that what his team had accomplished Tuesday was years in the making. The Wildcats seemed to want it more, especially in the second half.
“That was well-deserved. Eastwood is a great team,” Helmke said. “To beat a team of that caliber with the program that they’ve built, it feels good.”
Woodmore took over in the second half, outshooting Eastwood 12-6, including 9-4 in shots on goal. But the first half was evenly played with each team getting off four shots, but Woodmore holding on to a 3-2 advantage in shots on net.
However, it was Firsdon who got things rolling by sending a pass forward to Eastwood junior forward Delaine Zura.
Zura sent a cross right to a wide-open freshman forward Piper Sutton, who one-timed a quick hitter past Woodmore junior goalkeeper Layla McGinnis, putting Eastwood up 1-0 with 6:32 remaining until intermission.
In the second half Woodmore was not only getting off more shots, but the Wildcats were winning the majority of 50/50 balls at midfield.
Meanwhile, Woodmore’s defense was not afraid to close in on Eastwood’s top scorers, resulting in multiple steals for the ‘Cats.
Finally, on a counter, Woodmore junior forward and state track qualifier Azure Travis showed off her speed, beating a defender down the left side and scoring to tie the game at 1-1 with 20:16 remaining.
Woodmore freshman forward Kelsey Kaylor then connected on a 30-yard angled shot which went over the head of Eastwood sophomore goalkeeper Jordan Jensen for the winning goal at the 5:48 mark.
“They didn’t quit,” Helmke said. “That first half I don’t think we played as well as we should have. We definitely turned it up. The execution went up, and the urgency went up.”
