ROCKY RIVER, Ohio – Rocky River opened its 2020 season with a 2-2 tie against St. Joseph on a warm evening at Rocky River Stadium Monday.
Newcomer Ava Patti scored both Pirate goals. Both were answered, however, by the Jaguars, who twice trailed in the non-conference match which lifted the lid on the 33rd season of Rocky River Girls’ Soccer.
Ava Patti’s first goal opened the scoring less than a third of the way through the opening half. The freshman forward was on the receiving end of a long pass from her sister – senior captain Maya Patti – and she dribbled past a defender before whipping a 15-yard shot into the top-right 90. The netfinder, which came in the eighth minute, was set up in the River defensive zone when senior Cecilia Wischmeier turned a reversal into a pass downfield to the elder Patti sister.
The Jaguars countered and leveled the score at 1-1 in the 17th minute when Ella Maher nodded home a well-placed corner kick from Olivia Irvin. The goal came on the first shot of the game registered by the visiting side.
The tie score made its way to the 37th minute when a nifty three-way play vaulted the Pirates in front. Cara McKenna set up the play, finding Taylor Byall on a pass from the midfield logo to the left flank. Byall took contact but advanced the ball deep into the box where Ava Patti corralled it and banged it home from 11 yards out.
The McKenna-to-Byall-to-Patti goal came on River’s 10th shot; the Pirates would go on to outshoot the Jaguars, 11-2, over the first 40-minute stanza.
After halftime St. Joseph countered again, knotting the score with a goal in the 48th minute. It was senior Katie Donnelly finding twine for the Jaguars – Donnelly took a feed from the top of the box and connected on an 8-yarder which eluded Rocky River goalkeeper Sabrina Rick.
The Detroit Road Buccaneers nearly regained the lead in the 57th minute when Maya Patti bolted between two defenders to rifle a 10-yard whistler headed for nylon. But SJA ‘keeper Cate Shepherd batted the ball over the crossbar to garner an athletic save. Shepherd came up big again in the 68th minute when she thwarted a Pirate attack with a doorstep save.
Rick came up with a monster save of her own in the 74th minute. Her twisting stop of a would-be goal came after a misplay in the Pirate backfield. The three-year letterman made five saves in the second half.
The shots were even – 8-8 – in the second. But St. Joseph put six shots on cage to River’s three. For the game, the Pirates outshot the Jaguars, 19-10. Both Rick and Shepherd recorded five saves in the draw.
Rocky River (0-0-1) got solid play from senior defender Mia Kelly, who time and again deadened the left side of the St. Joseph attack. Fellow seniors Keira Vesy and Cecila Wischmeier were also adept at knocking SJA plays off kilter before they developed into scoring chances.
St. Joseph (1-0-1) and Rocky River hadn’t met since 2017. The tie snapped a six-game Pirate win streak in the cross-river match-up of west bank versus east. The River season opener in 2010 was also a tie against SJA (0-0 on Aug. 23). In home openers, the Pirates extended what is now an 11-game unbeaten streak (8-0-3). River’s last loss in a home debut came on Aug. 29, 2009 (4-0 loss to Magnificat).
But ultimately, the streaks and stats took a back seat to something not witnessed since Oct. 21, 2019 – a varsity athletic contest at Rocky River Stadium.
A contest with ups and downs, vigorous effort, trials, tenacity, and teamwork. In other words, exactly what we needed, student-athletes and fans alike.
CANNON FIRE …
THE BUCS ARE BACK!: Monday’s game marked the first RRHS athletic event at Rocky River Stadium in 308 days. A Girls’ Soccer 8-0 win over Holy Name in the DII Elyria District Tournament was the final home event of the 2019 fall sports season.
ODDS & ENDS: Monday’s game marked River’s first draw since Sept. 11, 2019. … The Pirates are 8-2-2 over their last dozen season openers. … The tie snapped a four-game home win streak for a program that went 7-2-1 at Rocky River Stadium in 2019. Since Sept. 30, 2017, the Pirates are 18-3-4 in their home environs.
# # # pirates # # #