Clarion River Valley Strikers U-10 Girls Overpower Greenville (05/23/14)

(By Matt Lerch)

The Clarion River Valley Strikers U-10 Girls team reinforced their win column and increased their spring record to 2-3 with their win against Greenville Girls by a score of 4-1. During a partially cloudy day at the Clarion County Park, the Clarion girls were one of all seven Clarion teams to defend home turf Sunday May 18th.

(Photo submitted by Matt Lerch)
Clarion River Valley Strikers – Girls U-10 Team

The scoring began early in the first half when coach Perry Boyden began mixing the chemistry of his team by moving his strong leg defender, Riley Burford, up to forward. Burford scored against the Greenville goalie with a rocket down the center.

Greenville evened the score before the half with a goal against first half goalie Evelyn Lerch. Lerch stopped 6 more goal attempts by Greenville. The second goal against Greenville was scored by a predictable combination, the newly coined duo “The Pack Attack.” Twin sisters Regan and Shawna Pack compiled a combination to split the Greenville defense with Shawna making the scoring kick.

During the second half the Clarion girls were lit on fire. With the score 2-1 in favor of Clarion and with Shawna Pack now in goal Coach Boyden mixed up the lines to create more scoring opportunities. Evelyn Lerch lurked in front of Greenville players as their goalie attempted to clear the ball to the Greenville defense. Lerch pounced on the opportunity by stealing the ball and scored unassisted redeeming herself from the first half goal. The highlight of the game came when the line of Parker Boyden, Joyce Kim and Lexi Coull worked feverishly to place the ball into the back of the net. Time and time again the ball would just miss the goal wide. Then, like a flash of lightening, the trio combined for a passing sequence that found Coull in front of the net with the ball. The shot culminated in Coull’s first goal of the season as the speedster returned to the bench to rejoice with her line.

With many opportunities the defense held tough with Robyn Stahlman, Olivia Bish, Korrin Burns and Peyton Simko stopping the Greenville offense from taking shots on Pack. Shawna Pack ended up making 8 saves to end what became the team’s second win of the season in the highly competitive Lake Division of PA West Soccer.

The girls will travel Sunday to Greenville to compete with the Greenville U-10 boys in hopes of improving their record to .500. With Coach Boyden maneuvering the levers of his team the probability is likely.
(Thanks to Matt Lerch for this article.)