High school soccer: Buckeye girls beat Bay to clinch GLC crown

YORK TWP. — You can change the name of the league, but the Buckeye girls soccer team is still going to dominate. It only took the Bucks two seasons to win the Great Lakes Conference. On Monday, they earned the title with a 2-1 win over Bay. "I'm not going to take any title for granted," Buckeye coach Derrick Gullen said. "A win is a win in any conference, but I will say it's nice to come back on top. I know the girls wanted this as much, if not more, than I did." Buckeye (12-1-2, 8-0-1) will wake up this morning with at least a share of the crown after rallying to beat the Rockets (6-7, 4-2). Rocky River (12-0-2, 7-0-1) likely will join the Bucks as co-champions after a game with Normandy (3-12, 0-8) on Wednesday, but for now Buckeye stands alone in a very tough GLC. The league title is the 16th in program history and eighth in the last nine seasons, but this one might mean a little bit more given just how strong the GLC is. "It's a very, very competitive conference," Buckeye midfielder Riley Vickerts said of her third league title. "Just to work so hard every single day, it really shows the chemistry and passion for the game. I think we put it all together. It was a great win in a great conference." The Bucks got a wake-up call early when Kealy Sullivan scored from 40 yards after catching George Cannon hanging off her line with 29:34 remaining in the first half. The junior got a paw on the shot, but it was so perfectly placed that Cannon couldn't get enough to prevent it from finding the twine.Just water under the bridge for the Bucks, who have only trailed four times this season. Against the Rockets, they hit the crossbar three times but showed the heart of a team ready to make its mark in the GLC by not allowing a shot the rest of the way. "Our defense as a whole is good at getting it together and hyping each other up," Buckeye defender Jessica Girard. "Whenever stuff happens, we know we got this. We know we can score again and come back." Just as important was the equalizer Alexa Atlasy scored off a pass from Vickerts with 15:00 left before intermission. Atlasy's shot beat Rory Marcis high and pushed Buckeye forward. "That was huge because there wasn't that much time that went by after Bay's goal," Gullen said. "It's one of those things where it's like, 'Oh, I can do this, so let's do it again.' I think that's the girls' mentality. It's do it once and do it as much as we can." Buckeye proved Gullen's words prophetic just 3:28 later when Hailee Smith scored the game-winner. The sophomore midfielder took a pass from Vickerts and once again Marcis was beaten high. After that, it was all Bucks, who outshot Bay 10-1 and had a 5-3 edge on corner kicks. "I think that goal gave us a lot of momentum to keep going," Smith said. "We knew we could beat them and we would beat them. "The goal felt really good because before I was kind of down. When I scored, it made it like, 'Oh, We can do this. We can beat this team.'" Contact Brad Bournival at bournival929@gmail.com. Buckeye 2, Bay 1BAY 1 0 — 1BUCKEYE 2 0 — 2FirstBay — Kealy Sullivan, 29:34.Buc — Alexa Atlasy (Riley Vickerts), 15:00.Buc — Hailee Smith (Vickerts), 11:32.Shots on goal — Bay 1, Buckeye 10. Corner kicks — Bay 3, Buckeye 5. Saves — Rory Marcis (Bay) 8, George Cannon (Buc) 0. Records — Bay (6-7, 4-2), Buckeye (12-1-2, 8-0-1). Junior varsity — Bay 8, Buckeye 1 (Buc: Dani Wiley).