SPRINGFIELD – Greenville’s season came to an end Thursday as the Lady Wave lost 13-0 to Springfield Shawnee in the opening round of the Ohio High School Athletic Association girls soccer tournament.
Shawnee, who won the Central Buckeye Conference championship and was ranked sixth in the Miami Valley by the Miami Valley Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association, entered the game as the No. 2 seed in the sectional tournament while Greenville was ranked 10th out of 10 teams in the sectional. The Lady Wave knew they were in for a tough challenge.
“We didn’t play as hard as I would have liked us to have played, but Shawnee, the No. 2 seed coming into this, we knew it was going to be a rough game,” Greenville coach Jason Arnold said. “I think we lagged a little bit tonight, but other than that we kind of kept to our form the best that we could.”
It took only 15 seconds for Shawnee to grab a 1-0 lead with a goal by Abby Schofield off an assist from Lena Jenssen. Two minutes later Jenssen scored, and the Braves led 2-0.
Shawnee had a 4-0 lead midway through the first half with a goal from Hannah Ryan and another goal by Jenssen.
Ryan scored her second goal of the night to make it 5-0. Jenssen had the assist, her 19th of the season, which is the most of any Division II girls soccer player in the state.
Madison Deam scored to put Shawnee up 6-0. Then in the final 10 minutes of the opening half Schofield, Madison Waddle and Jessica Harris scored to put the Braves up 9-0 entering halftime.
Schofield scored her third goal of the game early in the second half then Jenssen scored again, making it 11-0 and giving the Braves two players with a hat trick.
Waddle scored her second goal of the night midway through the second half then late in the game Brooke Baise scored to make it 13-0.
With Thursday’s loss, Greenville finished the season with a 1-15 record.
“We were riddled with a lot of injuries and a lot of low numbers,” Arnold said of his team’s season. “Our first four games we had to play a man down. The ones that stuck with it there was a lot of tenacity, and I was proud of the ones that overcome all of the obstacles that we had this season.”
The loss also marked the end of the high school soccer careers of Greenville’s eight seniors: Katelyn Avore, Maddy Baker, Paige Burns, Betsy Hall, Natalie House, Itzel Miniard, Allie Null and Maddie Shepard.
“That was the core group of this team,” Arnold said. “There was a lot of experience that’s going out with those seniors. So going to have to do some heavy recruiting this spring to replace those girls. They’re going to be some big shoes to fill.”
