PITSBURG – The Franklin Monroe girls soccer team hosted Twin Valley South in first round tournament action and the Lady Jets would avenge a regular season 1-1 tie with a 1-0 win over the Panthers to move on to the second round.
Twin Valley South pushed the tempo and play early in the first half, but the Franklin Monroe defense would hold strong along with goal keeper Emma Fisher coming up with a couple nice saves.
The Jets started to push the action late in the first half, getting a little momentum going into the break.
That momentum carried into the second half and eventually led to a goal by Chloe Brumbaugh at the 27-minute mark, and it would stand up the rest of the way.
“Any win is a good win,” Franklin Monroe coach Danny Diceanu said. “With this team and the kind of year we’ve had and all the work they put into it, I couldn’t be happier for them to get a win at home and a tournament game at that.
“What I’m unhappy with,is the way we played the last 10 minutes of the game, while winning, we just have to play a little smarter as a team,” Diceanu added.
It was the play of Brumbaugh that gave the Jets the lead and then helped to secure it later in the contest.
“Chloe is a very smart player, a very talented player, and I wish I had more like her,” Diceanu said. “The work ethic and desire she brings to practice and the will to succeed is what makes her a great player. She works at it.
“Her true position is up top, but with this team we need her help shoring up our defense, and she did a good job of cleaning up for us tonight late in the game,” he added.
“Defensively we played well tonight. Anna Flora had a real nice game defensively for us. Emma Fisher had a nice game in goal; she came out and got a couple of balls. But the rest of our defense played well enough that she didn’t have to do a whole lot tonight,” Diceanu said.
“Lilee Fisher had a real nice game, Nychelle Cool played strong, and Regan Williams gave us a lot of hustle tonight as well,” Diceanu added.
“We had a girl move to Sidney, and that changed things up for us a little and moving people around. But when an opportunity opens up it’s a chance for other to step up and show us what they have learned all year. Tonight, Micah Drew, Kim Fourman and Peyton Archer pitched in a gave us some good minutes.” Diceanu said.
“These girls have come a long way from when we first started as a group, and I would like to see it continue in our next tournament game,” Diceanu concluded.
Franklin Monroe stands at 3-10-4 on the year and will play a second round Ohio High School Athletic Association tournament game against 9-4 Lehman Catholic at 7 p.m. Thursday at Lehman.
