After a team wins a conference title, the rest of the evening is fueled by celebration, but for Crestwood Red Devils girls’ soccer Coach Eric Sway, he only had 15 minutes to celebrate before preparing for the upcoming boys’ soccer match.
He made the most out of those 15 minutes after the Red Devil girls shut out Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division foe Harvey 6-0 last Thursday evening at Jack Lambert Stadium in Mantua to repeat as the conference champions.
“It was definitely on our list of goals so that is another step up the ladder and a goal you can check off,” said the second-year coach. “It is something the girls all wanted and we worked for and we planned for. I am super proud of the girls and could not be more ecstatic for them. They did it and won on their own and they deserve the celebration and the accolades and now we move forward and look for our next goals.”
When Crestwood (8-3-1, 3-0-0) joined the CVC in 2020, the first two seasons did not go well but the tide turned last year when the Red Devils captured their first conference championship. They went undefeated in conference play last year and have remained so this season en route to their second straight conference title.
According to Sway, Crestwood won the conference title yet again because of a more-balanced offense.
“Compared to last year’s squad, the wealth has been spread around the field completely more than last year’s team,” he added. “Last year’s team we had Reagan Mory, who is over playing at Hiram, who was really our scorer and a lot of the girls looked to her to get the goals and whatnot and this year it is 100% different.”
It has been a scoring-by-committee approach this season with senior forward Allie Bartell, junior midfielder Erin Hallis and junior midfielder Taylor Larch all contributing.
On Thursday, Hallis scored in the first ten minutes of the contest, propelling the Red Devils to a 1-0 advantage.
“It gave us a little bit of a cushion and let us know if we made a mistake that we would not be playing from behind and that is what we want to do,” Sway said. “We want to strike first and make them play from behind and make them work harder and that is when we can take advantage and our passing is so good that we can move balls through channels.”
Sway added the Red Raiders dropped eight players back on defense to defend against Crestwood’s attack and credited the opposition for executing on defense by keeping their shape and their goalkeeper for making some nice saves.
Hallis struck again, this time inside the 28th minute of regulation, extending Crestwood’s lead to 2-0.
According to Sway, it appeared Harvey’s strategy was to try and create offense through defense and score off of counters by funneling their offense through sophomore forward Dayanna Soto but Crestwood’s backline did not allow Soto to operate with much room.
“She was very fast but her against three of my defenders, with Alyssa Hallis being one of them, we were not too concerned she was going to get by three of our great defenders on a counter regardless, so we took that as we were going to challenge the defense to take care of her and not worry about her,” he said.
The Red Devils added another goal at the beginning of the second half, stretching their advantage to 3-0 and things really started to open up on offense.
Erin Hallis continued sparking Crestwood, scoring two more goals in the second half and finished one goal shy of matching the school record for most goals scored by a Red Devil girl in a soccer match.
“It was a huge night for her,” said Sway. “She was not going to be stopped by anything. She is just such a great player. She is very humble and she is a very hard worker and leads by example on her play and is not super vocal but the way she plays; she is exactly the type of player we hope she is.”
The Red Devils never stopped attacking and controlled possession for most of the contest, leading them to their fourth shutout victory of the season and third one in their last five matches.
Crestwood will hit the road and face CVC Valley Division foe Jefferson at Falcon Pride Stadium in Ashtabula on Thursday at 6 p.m.
