PEPPER PIKE, Ohio – Rocky River kicked off its 2019 season with a 2-1 victory over the Orange Lions on Friday.
The Pirates ceded a 1-0 lead to the host Lions but would bounce back to tie the game and eventually win it on goals by senior Andrew Fry and junior Chase DeClerck. Rocky River has now won three straight season openers (2017-19); the Pirates have downed the Lions in each of the last two seasons (2018, 2019). River defeated Orange, 1-0, in last year’s opener (Aug. 18).
On Friday, Rocky River’s goals came in the 45th minute – a Fry penalty kick after a Lions hand ball in the box – and the 53rd, when DeClerck nodded a long free kick from Fry into the twine behind the Orange ‘keeper.
The Pirates (1-0) will open their 2019 home campaign on
Monday when they host the Chagrin Falls Tigers (7 p.m., Rocky River Stadium).
CANNON FIRE …
YOUNG BUCS: Rocky River was topped, 3-2, in Friday junior varsity contest. Sophomore Mark Quaiser scored both Pirate goals.
FRY GUY: Andrew Fry’s Friday goal marked the ninth of his career. Fry found the back of the net eight times last season in what marked his first in varsity threads. Three of those came on an Oct. 10 hat trick against Parma. The then-junior was tabbed as a All-Great Lakes Conference Second Teamer in 2018.
by Skip Snow
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