Girls district soccer: Brunswick blanks Stow; Perrysburg looms

BRUNSWICK — The wait was worth it for the Brunswick girls soccer team.After having their Division I, Northeast I District first-round game postponed due to weather Tuesday, the Blue Devils earned a 2-0 win over Stow on Wednesday.The 10th-seeded Blue Devils (7-8-3) advanced to take on No. 1 Perrysburg (13-1-2) on Saturday, while 14th-seeded Stow ended its season 3-9-6.The game was halted with 35:36 left in the first half Tuesday, and it took the Blue Devils (7-8-3) just 3:37 to warm up the crowd on a cold, rainy Wednesday.Sophomore defender Kaila Peterson cleaned up a corner kick from fellow defender Meredith Mucha to give her team a quick 1-0 lead."It was a blur," Peterson said. "I feel like that always happens. There was a corner, and I saw that it was going to go through because it curved. I just ran up, got lucky and got a hit on it. It wasn't a very pretty goal, but it went in."A tremendous individual effort from junior striker Natalie Davis made it 2-0 just 5:06 later."I just pressed the defender and waited for them to make a mistake," Davis said. "I penetrated with the ball and tried to slide it into the goal."(The goal) built our confidence and let us know we were capable. It shuts down their confidence and allows us to have some cushion."The Brunswick defense and goalkeeper Abbie Burgess (5 saves) made the lead stand up.The Bulldogs tallied four of their five shots on goal in the second half, but thanks to the back line of Julia Duffala, Peterson, Sydney Rice, Abby Morgan and Mucha, none were of any serious consequence and easily handled by Burgess."We moved our positions," Duffala said. "We had a sweeper and a stopper. We stayed back and didn't really high press. We communicated well."The battle-tested Blue Devils didn't have a ton of offense outside of the 5:06 span in the first half and didn't have any shots on goal in the second half, but they didn't need much more considering the way the team played defensively.Don't expect Brunswick to be intimidated by the state's No. 1-ranked D-I program, according to MaxPreps.com, as the Blue Devils have hung tough with several other elite programs.The regular season schedule included Walsh Jesuit (No. 5, D-I), Medina (No. 9, D-I), Akron Archbishop Hoban (No. 1, D-III) and Whitehouse Anthony Wayne (No. 4, D-II)."In the beginning of the season, our energy was kind of low because we just kept get hitting with these teams that are on top in the state," Peterson said. "The schedule helped motivate us and showed us that we can work that hard and put it all on the field now."Contact Chad Grant at sports@medina-gazette.com.Brunswick 2, Stow 0Division I, Northeast I District SemifinalSTOW 0 0 — 0BRUNSWICK 2 0 — 2 FirstB — Kaila Peterson (Meredith Mucha), 31:59B — Natalie Davis, 26:53.Shots on goal — Stow 5, Brunswick 6. Corner kicks — Stow 0, Brunswick 2. Saves — Naydia Bonazza (S) 4, Abbie Burgess (B) 5. Records — Stow (3-9-6), Brunswick (7-8-3).