Girls soccer: Firelands, North Ridgeville battle to scoreless draw in girls soccer

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Morgan Janicek almost got to play the hero. Firelands' senior forward was able to break free behind North Ridgeville's line, stealing the ball in the final five seconds to give herself an opportunity for the game's first goal, but her shot sailed over the net and the teams settled for a scoreless tie on Wednesday night. "I didn't realize it was going to get through, but at the last second it did and I saw the clock running so I went as fast as I could," Janicek said. "I tried to get the shot off, but it just didn't go in the direction I wanted it to go. We need to continue with the effort that we put into this game because it was outstanding for the entire game." Both teams had their opportunities with North Ridgeville (0-0-1) narrowly outshooting Firelands 11-10, placing five on goal to four for the Falcons (0-0-1). Each team had five shots, two on goal, in the first half. Firelands' first opportunity didn't come until the 26-minute mark, when Janicek was alone in the top right corner of the box and fired from about 20 yards out. She finished with four shots. "We slowed down (Janicek)," North Ridgeville coach Tim Hoffman said. "She was very fast, so it took a lot out of us to slow her down the entire game. We moved the ball very well, but once we tried to get that final pass to score, that's where everything broke down. So that's going to be our focus in the future, just getting that final pass to score." Firelands' back line did a great job in supporting goalkeeper Kendra Hardwick. Jordyn Copley had some clutch clears for the Falcons, as the sophomore took away the Rangers' best opportunity in the 17th minute, when North Ridgeville's Haley Catanese found Anna Blumfeldt in the box with a beautiful 30-yard feed. Blumfeldt pulled a nice move to shake her defender and created a window to the goal, but Copley used her length to quickly recover, clearing the attempt with a nice block. "They're all back from last year so I knew we had the potential to be good," Firelands coach Kevin Zeigler said. "They cover each other and work together very well. Jordyn has such long legs so she's really hard to get by. We stayed organized for the most part and prevented them from getting any really good looks. Their best looks came on corners, and I thought our back line played really well." The Rangers had two more great opportunities in the second half, both off corner kicks. Catanese first fed Rosie Fontecchio with what could have been a perfect header, but the timing was just off as she couldn't connect. The second came when Catanese created a point-blank attempt for Kai Antonio, but the shot sailed over the goal. "They were really aggressive to the ball," Antonio said. "They were really talkative. We had some nice outside runs, but they kept us covered." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on Twitter. Firelands 0, North Ridgeville 0 SHOTS: Firelands 10, North Ridgeville 11 SHOTS ON GOAL: Firelands 4, North Ridgeville 5 SAVES: (F) Kendra Hardwick; 4 (NR) C.C. Bouman 5 FOULS: Firelands 5, North Ridgeville 5 CORNER KICKS: Firelands 8, North Ridgeville 5 FREE KICKS: Firelands 5, North Ridgeville 5 GOAL KICKS: Firelands 11, North Ridgeville 9 HALFTIME: 0-0