Lady Jackets bounce back with second half flurry

By Carolina Zimbron

The Cedarville women’s soccer team shook the crowd with a victory with a second-half scoring avalanche against Lake Erie on Wednesday night.

The Lady Jackets have played Lake Erie eight times and have won every match. This game was definitely no exception.

Despite the loss they faced last weekend at Northwood, Cedarville managed to deliver a winning score of 4-0 to move to 2-1 in conference matches and 5-2 overall.

Despite scoring multiple times during the second half of the game, the Lady Jackets had a slow but steady first half, where they made sure to keep possession of the ball.

“Our team did really well, we had a little bit of a shaky start but they came in strong for the second half,” goalkeeper Brooke Ackley said. “I love games where I don’t do anything – they did a great job keeping the ball out.”

The Lady Jackets showed their dominance by launching 13 shots in the first half alone, and 14 more in the second half, where they would ultimately find more success. 

This game looked different than what the Lady Jackets are used to seeing from Lake Erie, due to Becks Young stepping in as the head coach for the Storm in 2023. This caused several strategic changes for Cedarville.

“We had a game plan coming out for tonight,” head coach Jonathan Meade said. “We knew Lake Erie had a different coach. There were some things that we wanted to do a little bit differently, and those didn’t completely come to fruition in the first half, so we talked about it at halftime. We made some adjustments and made some formation changes, and that really proved to help us out with oppression and go on the goal.”

Meade’s strategies clearly worked, as after halftime the Lady Jackets wasted no time in scoring their first goal of the game. Payton Fraley assisted Megan McClish on in the 48th minute to kick off what would be a scoring frenzy.

“Megan just really sold out to get after that header, and when she did that it opened a door on the back side for us to get the ball in the back of the net,” Meade said. “I am just proud of the team for putting in four goals tonight.”

The Lady Jackets strongly finished the match with goals from Seren Johnson, Addie Erslan and Maddy Nelson. It was a true team effort as eight different players recorded a goal or an assist.

Brooke Ackley notched her fourth clean sheet of the season.

“This match was an encouragement for us,” Ackley said. “It was a really good win and a great way to go into this week.”

The Lady Jackets will try to keep forward momentum as they prepare for their upcoming home game this Saturday against Ohio Dominican.

Carolina Zimbron is a junior Broadcasting, Digital Media & Journalism major with a passion for sports. In her free time she enjoys skating and spending time with her friends.

Photos by Logan Howard