GREENVILLE – Coach Jason Arnold is seeing progress from the Lady Wave even though it didn’t show on the scoreboard Wednesday night as the Greenville girls soccer team lost 10-0 to Vandalia-Butler.
“We went into this one anticipating it being a little tough,” Arnold said. “There was a little ray of hope – I know Butler was down a little bit tonight; obviously not enough for us to pick up.”
Butler took the lead just over two minutes into the game with Bri Fourman notching her first goal of the evening. The Aviators made it 2-0 after 11 minutes of play with a goal from Maddie Mitchell.
Fourman scored her second goal of the game midway through the first half then with less than six minutes remaining before halftime Haley Trittschuh scored to put the visitors up 4-0.
Greenville was playing with a new goalkeeper on Wednesday, freshman Grace Conway. She had a tough task as the ball was on Greenville’s side of the pitch almost all night, but she came up with several big stops.
“We had a new keeper tonight, and she just exceeded my expectations,” Arnold said. “This is her very first high school game that she’s ever played keeper in, and I only had her practice last night.”
Less than three minutes into the second half Fourman scored her third goal of the night to put Butler up 6-0.
Mitchell added two more goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half, giving Butler a 7-0 lead and two players with a hat trick.
Midway through the second half Allison Zebney scored to increase Butler’s advantage to 8-0. Then with less than five minutes remaining in the game Taylor Gingrich and Anna Minier both scored to give the Aviators a 10-0 victory.
Despite the outcome, Arnold said he’s seen improvement from his team each game.
“Still a lot of inexperience,” the Lady Wave coach said. “We’re getting our numbers up. The numbers that we’re bringing in are fairly new to the game.
“The ones that have been in it from the beginning have made big improvements. We started the season off shorthanded so that core group that I’ve got is still carrying a lot of the weight with the inexperience that I’m bringing on.”
Greenville has relied on its veteran players to provide leadership for the inexperienced girls who have joined the roster.
“There is a lot of leadership on this team, and they’re good about nurturing the new girls,” Arnold said. “Allie Null is always pretty good in the back at keeping my defense. Katelyn Avore is another good one that solidifies that defense. Maddie Shepard is up top always; she keeps the offense pretty organized.”
With Wednesday’s loss Greenville fell to 1-8 overall this season and 1-5 in the Greater Western Ohio Conference. Butler improved to 5-6-1 overall and 5-1-1 in the GWOC.
Greenville will return to action on Monday with a home game against Xenia.
