Girls soccer: Amherst's Paige Miller, Katie Allegier pace home team in all-star game

AMHERST – it was a good day to be hosting a soccer game ... if you were the hosts, that is. After watching Comet senior Ben Thompson contribute to a win for the boys all-star team, Amherst's Paige Miller and Katie Allgier stepped up with a pair of goals to help lift the Home team to a 5-2 win over Away in the Lorain County Girls Senior All-Star Soccer Game. "It was honestly just really nice," Miller said. "All these girls are seniors, so getting to play together and have fun one last time was really nice. I have a lot of friends on other teams that I don't get to play with that often, so that was really good." After a scoreless first half, the floodgates opened in the second, with the Home team scoring three goals in the first six minutes of the half. Miller found Avon Lake sophomore Ella Luczak, who was playing in the game due to a lack of seniors, for an easy tap-in to open the scoring less than two minutes into the half. Four minutes later, Miller took advantage of a defender running into Elyria Catholic goalkeeper Addie Roth to fire into an empty net to go up 2-0. It took less than a minute for the Home team to make it 3-0, as Firelands' Kylie Sutorius unleashed a rocket into the top corner from 25 yards out to put her team in total control. "I noticed there was no one guarding me in midfield," Sutorius said. "And I knew I could typically shoot from that far, so I just shot it and hoped it went in." Miller found Luczak for almost a perfect replica of their first goal in the 53rd minute, and the rout was on. "We kind of found our chemistry (in the second half)," Miller said. "All these girls have never played together before, so in the second half we started to figure out how to play with each other, which really helped." After nearly 20 minutes of calm, there was another flurry of goals in the final minutes, with the Away team getting on the board thanks to goals from Elyria Catholic's Gracie Taylor and Avon's Sierra Kobak on either side of Allegier's goal for Home. Miller's goal and pair of assists were the perfect way to end her high school career, and doing it on her home field only made it more special. She was just grateful to have fun playing high school soccer one last team. "It felt really great," Miller said. "Those are all team goals, and to see all the other girls score, they had great shots. Everyone was just having a lot of fun." After the game, Sutorius took a moment to reflect on how much it meant to put on her Firelands jersey one last time. "I can't even explain how it feels to just be able to play one more time," she said. "Our last game was one of the most important moments of my life, and to be able to replay that, especially with girls like this that we got to play with, it was really special." Home 5, Away 2 Goals: A - Gracie Taylor (71st minute), Sierra Kobak (76th minute); H - Ella Luczak (41st minute, 53rd minute), Paige Miller (45th minute), Kylie Sutorius (46th minute), Katie Allegier (72nd minute) Assists: A - Riley Frei; H - Paige Miller 2 Goalkeepers: A - Lily Fitch (3 saves), Addie Roth (3 saves); H - Jayden Dabwerkow (6 saves) Shots on goal: A - 7; H - 11 Fouls: A - 1; H - 4 Corner kicks: A - 1; H - 3 Offside: A -2 ; H - 0 Halftime - Home 0, Away 0