Beaver Local earns hard-fought win over Big Red
Trending
CALCUTTA -- Coming off an appearance in the Div. IV state semifinals last season, the bar remains high for the Beaver Local girls soccer team.
With its two biggest threats back on offense, the Beavers have picked up where they left off last season. On Tuesday against Steubenville Big Red, junior Peyton Dunn tallied a pair of goals and sophomore Leah Stewart put the game out of reach with a goal of her own in a 3-1 Beaver win at Pastore Field.
The Beavers are 7-1, while Big Red dropped to 5-3-2.
Dunn, the school’s all-time leading goal scorer with 117 career goals, has scored 21 goals this season with seven assists. Stewart is the team’s second leading scorer with 11 goals, but she has been instrumental in setting up Dunn and the other Beaver attackers with her team-high 14 assists.
“We bring up last year even though it’s different people,” Dunn said. “We want to prove that we deserved to go as far as we did last year. We want to prove that we had the ability last year and that it wasn’t a one-year thing.”
It will be different for the Beavers this time around. The team has moved up to Div. III in Ohio and Class 5A in the OVAC and the team’s defensive arrangement in the back is new.
“Our offense returning is very experienced, so we’ve been trying to rebuild and have that chemistry with our back four,” Beaver Local coach Liz Connor said. “It’s coming along a lot better now that we’re midway through the year. We know the expectations are high for us, but we’re trying to manage those and take it one game at a time.”
Dunn said she is open to new challenges and thinks it will be good for the team.
“It’s going to put pressure on us going as far as we went last year,” Dunn said. “Stepping up in a higher division, it’s really going to test us.”
Against Big Red, the Beavers had plenty of chances off the counter attack early that they weren’t able to convert even though the visitors were dominating possession. Dunn broke through with a goal off a penalty kick with 22:45 left in the first half.
Out of the break, Dunn scored her second goal from distance to make it 2-0 with 32:24 left in the second half. Big Red countered a short time later as Gianna Thomas connected with Lucy Saccoccia to make it 2-1. Stewart sliced and diced through the Big Red defense for the final goal with 12:32 left.
“Knowing what they have with Peyton Dunn up front and Stewart in the middle, those are the key players we had to close down,” Big Red coach Annie Cutri said. “I think in the first half we were the dominant team, we just couldn’t find the back of the net. The penalty kick was unfortunate. We trailed 1-0 at the half, but two silly mistakes led to two more goals.”
Dunn thought the defense really came through for the Beavers. Goalkeeper Tatum Duncan had eight saves.
“Our defense had been struggling but they really stepped it up today against a good team,” Dunn said. “Shots wise? We have to work on that, but that’s more of a me thing.”
Soccer isn’t the only thing Dunn is really, really good at. An experienced quarter horse racer, Dunn finds way to maintain a championship discipline in that sport as well.
“I have the Quarter Horse Congress in two weeks and that’s one of the biggest races in the country for quarter horses,” Dunn said.
The Quarter Horse Congress being held at the Ohio Expo Center and State Fairgrounds is known as the world’s largest horse show boasting more than 20,000 entries and housing 4,000 American Quarter Horses.
“Two years ago was my first year doing it and I won my age group and I also won 18 and under,” Dunn said. “Last year I made it to the sweepstakes which involves everyone. I made it to the finals for that.”
Dunn also showed her sheep at the Columbiana County Fair in August while juggling the horse racing and soccer.
“I have to schedule everything,” Dunn said. “After my game tonight, I’ll probably go home and ride for an hour.”
The Quarter Horse Congress may overlap one soccer game on Oct. 3 against Niles if Dunn makes the finals.
Notes
• Beaver Local’s Div. III district will consist of Steubenville, Carrollton, Dover, John Glenn, Marysville, New Philadelphia, Tri-Valley and Zanesville.
• The Beavers and Big Red are likely first round opponents in the OVAC Class 5A tournament. Currently the Beavers are first and Big Red is fourth. University sits second and Wheeling Park is third.
“Beaver plays a more direct style, while University is disciplined in build-up and passing,” Cutri said.
• Beaver Local hosts senior night today against United.
• Steubenville goes to Linsly on Thursday.