Girls basketball: Firelands turns up the defense to beat Western Reserve in season opener

HENRIETTA TWP. — It would be nearly impossible for a team to start a season better on defense than Firelands did Saturday in a 36-22 win over Western Reserve. The Falcons held the Roughriders to just three points in the first half on a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the first quarter. "I loved their effort, and they gave that on their own," said Firelands coach Onyx Lopez. "It's really difficult to shut a team out (in a quarter), and that's all effort. It just goes to show what our culture is here." Firelands dominated defensively in the first quarter, but it only tightened the screws in the second, and really started to turn its defensive effort into offense, forcing 13 turnovers that helped give it a 24-3 halftime lead. "It was good to come out with that intensity," said junior Stella Frederick, who led the Falcons with 10 points. "We shut them down, and punched them in the face first, which caused us to stay intense the whole game." In the second half, the Falcons relaxed their intensity a bit, but the Roughriders also played a lot better, outscoring the Falcons 19-12 after the break. "I don't think anything necessarily changed on our end, other than maybe we took our foot off the gas a little bit," Lopez said. "We didn't make shots, and we pulled our press off, which almost hurt us offensively more than it did defensively." Despite Firelands easing off the pressure, Western Reserve never got closer than 12 points in the second half. "I thought it was a good little jump start to what we'll hopefully see in the future," Lopez said. "Defensively, I love the way the defense looks, and it was a good opening for the season." If there was one major flaw for the Falcons, it was their shooting. They shot just 28.3 percent from the floor, and a big chunk of their misses came at the rim, which allowed the Roughriders to stay within touching distance and make the final few minutes a bit more anxious than they probably should have been. "You can't make shots unless you take shots," Lopez said. "I think we saw maybe a little bit of first-game jitters, shots were long, shots were off a little bit. So, we're just going to keep shooting, and the more shots we get, the more shots we'll make. Our job is to find good shots and take them, and hopefully we'll start putting them in the basket." "We're going to look back at what we did, good and bad," Frederick said. "And we'll work on the things we need to work on." Contact Will Cunningham at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Firelands 36, Western Reserve 22 Western Reserve (22): Kara Woodruff 2-3-7, Lilliana Jarrett 0-0-0, Maylee Wetzel 0-0-0, Jillian Charville 0-2-2, Ally Goebbel 1-0-3, Audree Jackson 0-0-0, Layken Barnhart 2-1-6, Kendall Warthling 1-0-2, Ava-Grace Thornburg 1-0-2. Totals 7-6-22. Firelands (36): Stella Frederick 4-0-10, Jordyn Copley 3-1-7, Natalie Smith 0-0-0, Dilynn Copley 1-0-3, Emily Frenk 0-0-0, Addie Schrader 2-1-6, Khloe Meinke 0-0-0, Kylie Sutorius 1-0-2, Emaley Burnworth 0-0-0, Micah Lee 3-0-6, Lexi Schrader 1-0-2. Totals 15-2-36. Western Reserve 3 0 11 8 — 22 Firelands 9 15 7 5 — 36 Three point field goals: Western Reserve (Goebbel, Barnhart), Firelands (Frederick 2, D. Copley, A. Schrader). Field goals: Western Reserve 7-32 (21.9 percent), Firelands 15-53 (28.3 percent). Free throws: Western Reserve 6-9 (33.3 percent), Firelands 2-4 (50 percent). Rebounds: Western Reserve 26, Firelands 24. Turnovers: Western Reserve 30, Firelands 17. Team fouls: Western Reserve 9, Firelands 16.