View photos of Lebanon girls soccer online at Western-Star.com/sports
After losing six starters from last year’s Greater Western Ohio Conference South Division champions, the Lebanon High varsity girls soccer team was supposed to be in rebuilding mode for 2009.
Head coach Bruce Bingham must have contacted ABC’s “Extreme Makeover”, because the Warriors got back into top form in record time.
Lebanon opened the season with three wins — including a 2-1 win over perennial power Kettering Alter.
“We’ve gotten off to a good start, we’ve got to try and build off of that,” Bingham said. “We’re still a work in progress. We’ve got to continue to do the small things that make us better.”
Bingham was most pleased with the Warriors’ third win — a 3-1 victory over visiting Amelia on Saturday, Aug. 29.
Sydney Huth scored a pair of goals and freshman Megan Fennessey added another in the win. Erika McDaniel and Huth each had an assist, but it was the play of midfielders McDaniel and Frasik that had Bingham most pleased. “In our first two games our midfielders didn’t get off hardly any shots and that won’t work for us,” Bingham said. “We worked on that a lot in practice and against Amelia Tonya and Erika were dominant.
“When they are playing well, it makes everything else come together. They make other things happen. We were able to put passes together, we communicated well and everyone made the runs they are supposed to make.”
Defenders Audrey Parent and Mandy Smith controlled the Amelia attack, as the only score the Barons got on goalkeeper Ariel Mishurda came from a penalty kick.
“That was the best soccer that we’ve played all year,” Bingham said. “I thought we were pretty lucky to beat Alter and we played a slow game against Piqua. How we played against Amelia is how we need to play going forward.”
Huth and Emily Sibcy scored goals against Alter in a game the Knights dominated for a half but could not put the ball in the net.
Huth scored two more in a 3-0 win over Piqua, with Frasik adding a goal and an assist.
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4526 or shayes@coxohio.com.
About the Author