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The Lady Pirates used a first half run of 6-0 and a second half run of 6-0, to win convincingly at Avon Lake tonight 20 – 9. Between the end of the first half and the start of the second half, the Pirates scored 11 consecutive goals to pull away early into the second half.
The Pirates were aided by the red hot foursome of Alexis Tisler, Olivia Konopka, Grace Dewitt and Kaitlyn Bryne who not only had hat tricks, but combined for nearly 80% of the Pirates scoring tonight. Those 4 players combined, are almost impossible to stop when they play the way they have been playing the past two weeks.
Avon Lake was aided by impressive performances from Eloise Kolofer who had a hat trick herself, along with 3 goals from Ella Manfred and 2 from Nina Marinelli. The Shoregals also received a goal from Kendall Holley.
It was a wild first five minutes that saw 5 goals quickly. The first two coming from Alexis Tisler of Rocky River, before Avon Lake answered right back with goals from Nina Marinelli and their captain, Eloise Kolofer. River didn’t allow it to stay tied long with a free position goal off the stick off Olivia Konopka to go back up 3-2, with 19:38 still remaining in the first. 90 seconds after that, Elle Mocho widened the lead back to 2 wit a goal for the Pirates.
The Pirates then had a chance to widen the lead even more with a free position opportunity, but missed as the Shoregals turned them away to keep it 4-2 with 16:24 remaining. Olivia Konopka would get another chance about a minute later, and this time connect to move the score to 5-2.
Up 5-2, Grace Dewitt got into the scoring frenzy with one of her own, to hand the Pirates their largest lead of the night at 6-2, with 15:15 still to play in the opening half. After another Pirate goal increased it to 7-2 on the Tisler Hat Trick, Avon Lake called a timeout to compose themselves with 12:07 still to play. The timeout didn’t appear to work at first, as right out of the break it was Kaitlyn Bryne putting the Pirates ahead 8-2.
The Shoregals needed to do something to stop the 6-0 run by the Lady Pirates and did so with a huge goal by Kendall Holley, the exciting freshmen midfielder. The Pirates were unfazed however, as right after that, it was Konopa scoring again for her hat trick, to bring the score by to a 6-goal margin at 9-3.
After an Ella Manfred Shoregals goal cut the lead to 9-4, it was Regan Connelly putting the lead right back at 6 with her first goal of the night. Back-to-back goals by Grace Dewitt, not only gave her a hat trick of her own, but pretty much put the game away at 12-4 with 5:27 still left to play in the first half.
The Pirates led 14-4 as the match went to the halftime break as Konopka scored again on a beautiful end around off a set play from River that struck gold. They were patient, and made it happen to perfection!
The Lady Pirates picked up the second half where they left off in the first, with another goal within seconds by Kaitlyn Bryne. Shortly after that, the Olivia Konopka scoring show continued with another goal to make it 16-4. When Bryne, Konopka, Dewitt and Tisler all heat up at once, the Pirates become impossible to stop.
A little bit later into the night, already up 18-4, it was Kaitlyn Bryne following up a Marin Richmond goal, with one of her own to join the Tisler, Dewitt and Konopka in the hat trick party. Down 20 – 4, the Shoregal’s suddenly heated up and became a scoring machine of their own with 5 straight goals by Ella Manfred (2), Nina Marinelli and Eloise Kolofer ( 2 ) to cut the lead to 20- 9.
The Pirates went on to win by that same score however and the took home the impressive road victory.
