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WEIRTON -- Brooke won the ball and the match against Madonna.
The Bruins beat the Blue Dons to the ball, and Brooke’s first touch was on point in the first half as the it scored four goals in the opening 40 minutes enroute to a 5-1 victory against the Blue Dons Monday evening at the J.C. Williams Soccer Complex.
Madison Platt collected a hat trick to lead the offensive charge for the Bruins.
“We moved the ball well,” first-year Brooke (9-3) head coach Jack Minger said. “That is the thing we are working on. We are working on moving the ball and our first touch. We did very well with that today. We are working hard on it to get ready for sectionals.”
The Bruins won nearly all the balls in the first half as the Brooke County team tallied the first four goals of the match.
“We have to start stepping to the ball,” Madonna (7-7-1) head coach Bob Kolanko said. “We did much better in the second half. We were able to control the ball in the second half.
“Throughout the season, we have played a very-strong defensive game. We get back and play in the 18, but you can’t win that way. At halftime, we talked about pushing up and trying to make things happen. We did score a goal. We wanted to play in the middle of the field and not just defend the whole time.”
Johnna Lahita tallied a goal and four assists to help the Brooke cause, while Brooke Ohler recorded a goal and an assist.
The Bruins used two goalies in the match. Franki Neff started in goal, and she did not make a save. She was replaced in the second half by Ella McCullough, who made one save.
Gabriella Spickard delivered the lone goal for Madonna. The goal was unassisted.
Julia Wingett stopped 10 shots in goal for the Dons. Wingett was under siege for the majority of the first half.
There was no score as the match approached the midway point of the first half, however, Platt tallied her first goal of the match off a cross from Lahita to give Brooke a 1-0 lead about 17 minutes into the first half. The pair hooked up again about two minutes later to increase the visitor’s advantage 2-0. Then about a minute later, Ohler scored off Lahita’s third assist to make the score 3-0.
“They scored two quick goals,” Kolanko said. “They played the ball into the center and when you play compact like that you expect someone to step up and get the ball, but no one stepped up and got the ball. We let them score two easy goals. That’s when I decided we needed to stop playing defense, and we needed to push everyone out. We tried to play defense in the middle of the field.”
Later, Platt capped off her hat trick, off Lahita’s fourth assists, to extend Brooke’s advantage to 4-0.
“For some reason we get off to slow starts,” Minger said. “We are trying to figure out our lineup as we get ready for sectionals. We will have to play Wheeling Park and Morgantown. Those are our only two losses. Morgantown has beaten us twice, once in the OVACs and once in the regular season, and Wheeling Park has beaten us in the regular season. Those are our only losses.”
Spickard capped the scoring in the first half when she scored with about three minutes left in the half. Spickard stole the ball, drove in on goal and fired a shot into the net to make it 4-1.
Lahita scored early in the second half off an assist by Ohler to regain a four-goal lead for the victors at 5-1. Lahita’s goal came on shot from the outside that sailed into the upper part of the net on the short side of the goal.
“I have known Jack for many years,” Kolanko said. “We used to coach together in travel years ago when our kids were young. His teams always have good fundamentals. They played a good-fundamental game. That is always one of the strengths of his teams. They played very well. They did what we expected a Coach Mingers’ team, there is two of them, to do."
The Blue Dons began the game with 11 players, but Madonna lost one player in the first half and were forced to play a man down. The Bruins pulled a goal off the field in the second half, and the hosts were forced to play a handful of minutes toward the end of the second half with a mere nine players on the pitch. One of the players returned to the pitch to once again give the Dons 10 players.
“They picked it up in the second half,” Minger said about the Blue Dons. “They always give us a game. They are well coached.”
Brooke is scheduled to play Williamstown at 6 p.m. Wednesday at home.
Madonna is slated to play East Liverpool at 6 p.m. Thursday on the road in a makeup match. The match originally scheduled for earlier in the season was postponed due to a lack of officials.