Boys soccer: Buckeye falls to defending CWC champ Westlake

YORK TWP. — Going up against bigger, faster and more experienced opponents can be a daunting task, but the Buckeye boys soccer team didn't back down from the challenge Wednesday night. Facing reigning Cleveland West Conference champion Westlake, which returned 12 seniors from last season's Division III district championship, the young Bucks got valuable experience in a 5-0 conference loss. "I'm always looking to play someone better than me," junior Cael Miller said. "I'm looking to always challenge myself, and I'm just looking to grow off this game. This game honestly helped us expose some of our weaknesses and helped us out in general." Miller was a man on a mission on the Buckeye back line, throwing himself in front of a number of shots and passes. The Demons (4-1, 2-0) won a third straight game behind two goals by Jake Shreffler and a goal and assist each by Sean Brouillard and Meekal Alramahi. While Westlake had five out of its 12 seniors starting, Buckeye had only two seniors in captain Brody Winter and defender Jonathan Kruk and started three sophomores. The Bucks (2-3-1, 0-2) hope that experience will prove valuable down the road. "You always learn more from your losses than your wins," junior captain Dimitri Tenenika said. "It exposed that we need to be more conditioned and more organized at times. Later in the season, it will help us a lot when we're playing teams similar to them (in the tournament)." Westlake got on the board just over five minutes in as Shreffler pocketed a pass from Santino Zingales Jr. Buckeye nearly tied just over two minutes later when Jace Wray tracked down a ball near the goal line, but Demons keeper Michael Bosch raced back into position to make his only save of the game. Brody Winter had Buckeye's other quality chance when he stole a pass in the scoring third and fired a shot that sailed over the goal. "We need to be more aggressive (offensively)," Tenenika said. "I think, sometimes we're a little bit passive. We're not the biggest team, but we have some really technical players. "If we attack their defense with pace and speed it will help us a lot." Following Bosch's save against Wray, Colin McGregor gave Westlake a 2-0 lead when he got the ball just over Buckeye goalie Hunter Uhlien (6 saves). In addition to Uehlien's saves, Miller made back-to-back great stops on the back line when Uehlien got pulled out of position. "I've been a defender ever since I was little," Miller said. "It's weird, but I almost have a Spidey-sense of knowing where to stand on the goal line and where to block a shot. I'm always scanning around for where I think the shot is going to be." The Demons got a pair of goals late in the first half to go into halftime with a 4-0 lead. Brouillard scored on a feed from Alramahi and then assisted Shreffler on his second goal. Alramahi closed the scoring seven minutes into the second half with a goal from the box. Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com. Westlake 5, Buckeye 0 WESTLAKE 4 1 — 5 BUCKEYE 0 0 — 0 First W — Jake Shreffler (Santino Zingales Jr.), 34:46. W — Colin McGregor, 30:23. W — Sean Brouillard (Meekal Alramahi), 8:00. W — Shreffler (Brouillard), 3:11. Second W — Alramahi, 33:12. Shots on goal — Westlake 13, Buckeye 1. Corner kicks — Westlake 11, Buckeye 2. Saves — Michael Bosch (W) 1, Hunter Uehlien (B) 6, Cael Miller (B) 2. Records — Westlake (4-1, 2-0), Buckeye (2-3-1, 0-2). Junior varsity — Westlake 10, Buckeye 2.