Boys soccer: Highland's offense comes alive against Buckeye

GRANGER TWP. — The Highland boys soccer team's search for its first win ended Saturday night with a 4-1 non-league decision over Medina County rival Buckeye. In the process, the Hornets (1-3) found an offensive outbreak, scoring twice as many goals as the previous three games combined. "It feels really good," senior Hoyt Pylypiak said. "We've been waiting for it for a little bit. We had a tough first few games, but that was expected. We knew they weren't going to be easy. "We've got a feeling for winning again, and the team morale is back up. That's going to further us for the postseason." Pylypiak got the offense rolling when he took a nice feed from freshman Jayden Bacik and found the back of the net with 16:03 left in the first half. Thanks to a brilliant performance between the pipes by Bucks goalie Hunter Uehlein, that's where the score stayed going into halftime. Uehlein made six of his 14 saves in the half as Highland applied unrelenting pressure for most of the first 60 minutes en route to 18 shots on goal and 11 corner kicks, including seven in the first 20 minutes. Uehlein made a number of highlight-reel plays. None were more impressive than back-to-back diving saves against Pylypiak and Jacob Regovich just past the midway point of the first half. "I feel like you need to take it one shot at a time," Uehlein said. "You can't get all the shots that are past you in the goal already in your head. If you do then more are coming." That performance wasn't enough to keep the Bucks (1-4-1) from losing their fourth straight. Highland's pressure began to crack the Buckeye defense in the second half, as senior Nick Gaydos pocketed a pass from Billy Zufall with 31:39 left. The play began with a corner kick by Bacik, who took the vast majority of corners, and then the ball bounced around a little bit before Zufall sent it to Gaydos. Bacik played a solid game in helping the Hornets control the ball in the middle and scoring thirds for most of the night. "It felt really good (to get the offense going," Gaydos said. "It should have started like that from the beginning, but sometimes it starts slow. It's all good. It felt great." Zufall, who had both of Highland's goals to start the season, put the Hornets up 3-0 with 26:18 left. Regovich capped the Hornets' strongest offensive night since defeating former Suburban League American Conference foe Cuyahoga Falls 6-0 on Oct. 7. Senior Dimitri Tenenika kept the Bucks from being shut out for the fourth time in the last five games when he booted a penalty kick into the back of the net high and to the left with 14:02 remaining. It was Buckeye's first shot on goal. "Mostly we just need to work on shooting more," Tenenika said. "We got our passing down really well this game. It just comes down to that final third. We just need to finish with some shot on frame, and I think we'll be successful." With Highland giving valuable experience to its bench all around the field late, backup goalie Joseph Corrigan came on to make two saves over the final 14 minutes. Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com. Highland 4, Buckeye 1 BUCKEYE&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; 0 1 — 1 HIGHLAND &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;1 3 — 4 First H — Hoyt Pylypiak (Jayden Bacik), 16:03. Second H — Nick Gaydos (Billy Zufall), 31:39. H — Zufall, 26:18. H — Jacob Regovich (Leonardo Prudhomme), 19:48. B — Dimitri Tenenika (penalty kick), 14:02. Shots on goal — Buckeye 3, Highland 18. Corner kicks — Buckeye 1, Highland 11. Saves — Hunter Uehlein (B) 14, Conner Dean (H) 0, Joseph Corrigan (H) 2. Records — Buckeye (1-4-1), Highland (1-3). Junior varsity — Highland 9, Buckeye 0.