Boys sectional soccer: Aidan Wood delivers as North Ridgeville beats Brunswick

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — When North Ridgeville needed to keep its season alive it put its faith in Aidan Wood. And Wood delivered. Wood's save of a Zac Shorts penalty kick in the fourth round of a penalty kick shootout sent No. 3 seed North Ridgeville back to the district semifinals with a 2-1 win over fifth-seeded Brunswick in a Division I sectional final. "The good thing is I know how good of a keeper Aidan Wood is — I had no doubts he wound save at least a handful of these shots," North Ridgeville coach George Panagiotou said. "When we do it in training, he's stopping them left and right. He has amazing instincts." Paxton Hill, Logan Margolin and Noah Braun made penalty kicks for North Ridgeville in the shootout. Wood saved the final two Blue Devils kicks to give the Rangers a 4-2 edge in the shootout and help them improve to 17-0 heading into their district semifinal match Wednesday at home against Lakewood. "I wasn't nervous at all going into the penalties. My philosophy is the pressure is on them, not me," Wood said. "I have to do my job and hope my teammates do theirs. I stepped up and so did everyone on the team, and ultimately we saw it through." The Rangers scored first, just before halftime, when junior Nate Bright scored on a header off of a Margolin assist. That one-goal lead held up until the 76th minute when Brunswick captain Evan Horner lined a perfectly placed free kick into the upper corner of the net to tie the game at 1. "They scored on an amazing set piece but we didn't concede a goal in the run of play. In fact, the last four goals we've allowed, none of them have been in the run of play," Panagiotou said. "So our mindset was as long as don't commit stupid fouls and turn over the ball in bad places, we're not going to concede another goal. We just wanted to be aggressive on the other end to create opportunities to finish." Sophomore goalkeeper Eli Hyde made a couple of big saves for the Blue Devils (12-3-4) in the first 15-minute overtime period to keep his team in the game. But as the overtime dragged out you could see the fatigue on both sides as players fell to the wet turf with cramps or were unable to complete scoring chances. "It's one of the most ridiculous things the OHSAA puts us through," Brunswick coach Ben Dotson said. "Every other sport has overtime. We don't get to practice this and then you come into a night like this and you just haven't learned how to prepare for it." North Ridgeville also defeated Brunswick by a score of 2-1 when the teams met in the regular season. It was one of only two games this year when the Blue Devils allowed more than one goal in a game. "Seventy percent of that goal wasn't me, it was the lead up from my teammates getting the ball from our back line and our midfield, Logan dribbling up and then crossing a perfect ball to me," Bright said. "Scoring the first goal provided us with so much energy and momentum, and that is so important in a close game." The Rangers have allowed seven goals this season in 17 games. "We have to take this one game at a time," Panagiotou said. "We can't look at 17-0, we have to just keep looking at one more game. These are kids trying to learn their focus and emotions. We just have to keep taking it one game at a time." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. North Ridgeville 2, Brunswick 1 (4-2 SO) GOALS: (B) Evan Horner (76th minute); (NR) Nate Bright (38th minute) ASSIST: (NR) Logan Margolin SAVES: (B) Eli Hyde 7; (NR) Aidan Wood 13 SHOTS ON GOAL: Brunswick 14; North Ridgeville 8 FOULS: Brunswick 16; North Ridgeville 14 CORNER KICKS: Brunswick 6, North Ridgeville 2