High school soccer: Firelands boys, girls sweep doubleheader against Columbia

SOUTH AMHERST — It was a banner day for Firelands. The Falcons have the inside track to two more Lorain County League championships after sweeping Wednesday's boys-girls doubleheader against Columbia. Firelands' boys easily won the opener, 10-1, to remain undefeated in league play and take a three-point lead over the Raiders in the standings. After playing to a draw in their last three meetings against Columbia dating back to 2024, the Falcons used a late first-half goal from sophomore Addie Schrader on the way to a 2-0 win. Reagan Sutorius added a goal midway through the second half for the Falcons, who improved to 6-3-1 and 5-0-1 in the LCL. "We were able to play the kinda game we wanted to play," Firelands girls coach Kevin Ziegler said. "The last three times we've played them, it's been incredibly tight games. (Columbia coach Blaez Pratt and Jason Prather) do a great job over there. It was a tight game like we expected." Firelands dominated the possession early in the match but Raiders goalkeeper Gianna Stervagi made save after save to keep the game scoreless. In the 38th minute, senior Jordyn Copley played a ball forward from the left back to Schrader that landed just outside the box as Schrader raced to the ball and Stervagi moved forward to try to redirect it out of harm's way. Schrader reached the ball first and chipped it into the empty net to put her team in front. "It was a great ball from Jordyn. I knew I had to run on it. I was aiming for a corner but instead I was able to chip it," Schrader said. "We haven't won conference yet but this was a big game leading up to winning conference." Columbia (6-3-1, 4-1-1) played better as the game went on but were unable to find a way to score on Falcons goalkeeper Ava Huston. "I'm honestly really proud of how we played," Pratt said. "We started off pretty frantic. We knew it would be pretty hard coming to this field, knowing what was at stake. Our girls played really hard and they left it all on the field." The Falcons posted their third straight shutout. Although the Raiders' boys scored first in their game on a 4th minute goal from Haroon Shakib, there wasn't much of a silver lining for Columbia (8-2, 5-2), as the Falcons proceeded to rattle off 10 unanswered goals. Junior Jayden Becker scored four times for Firelands (8-1, 6-0) with a pair of goals in each half. Senior Mikey Janosik and juniors Alex Duke and Kaleb Cain each scored twice to put the Falcons on the brink of their seventh consecutive LCL title. "Obviously I'm really happy with the boys and how they played," Falcons boys coach Bill Yakunovich said. "Honestly, at the start of the game, I didn't feel like we were playing our best game. At halftime, we made of adjustments to move the ball better and the boys came out and played their game." Firelands has scored six or more goals in six of its last seven matches. Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Boys Firelands 10, Columbia 1 Columbia 1 0 — 1 Firelands 4 6 — 10 Goals: Columbia - Haroon Shakib. Firelands - Jayden Becker 4, Mikey Janosik 2, Alex Duke 2 Kaleb Cain 2 Girls Firelands 2, Columbia 0 Columbia 0 0 — 0 Firelands 1 1 — 2 Goals: Firelands - Addie Schrader, Reagan Sutorius