In the latest rivalry game against Fairfield Union, the Bloom-Carroll girls soccer team jumped out to an early lead to win.
LANCASTER ― It is one of the best rivalries in the area, regardless of sport, when it involves Bloom-Carroll and Fairfield Union girls soccer.
Both teams always have this game circled on the calendar, and it never disappoints. Even more importantly, the winner usually goes on to win the Mid-State League-Buckeye Division championship. The fact that the game came so early this year didn’t take away from the importance.
Two years ago, the game ended in a 2-2 tie, and in 2024, the Bulldogs were able to overcome an early deficit to pull out a 3-1 victory.
On Wednesday, Aug. 27, the Falcons missed a golden opportunity to take an early lead when they had a breakaway point-blank shot hit the crossbar.
Bloom-Carroll capitalized moments later by scoring back-to-back corner kicks two minutes apart to take a quick 2-0 advantage. The Bulldogs would add another goal late in the first half, only to watch the Falcons get on the board. In the end, the Falcons could not overcome the early deficit as Bloom-Carroll pulled away for a hard-fought 4-1 victory at Falcons Stadium.
“We work on corner kicks a lot in practice,” said Bloom-Carroll junior Mackenzie Haslett, who is only one of three returning starters for the Bulldogs. “We hype this game up a lot in practice, and we feel like it is always the most exciting game of the regular season. There is always extra motivation to win this game, so winning this, especially so early in the season, should give us a lot of confidence moving forward.”
Bloom-Carroll coach Mark Casperson, who has led the Bulldogs to five consecutive MSL-Buckeye Division titles, wished the game were a little later in the season. Regardless, he was pleased with how his young team responded by playing a different style than what they have played in the past.
“We play a different style than we have in previous years, but it has been effective," Casperson said. "We are very hard to score on, defensively, and then we are focused on attacking in transition and getting in behind with our three quick forwards. We worked on corner kicks a lot in practice, and it paid off a lot tonight with two of our goals coming off corner kicks.
“We return three starters and have a lot of younger players on the field. We were more of a possession-based team last year with senior midfielders, and now we are more of a transition team where we defend well, and we transition going forward well.”
Bloom-Carroll’s first corner kick goal came from Haslett at the 29:02 mark of the first half, and two minutes later, junior Emily Smith scored on a corner kick. With 6:55 left in the half, Smith added her second goal to give the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead.
Fairfield Union was able to get on the scoreboard when junior Kyla Gasser found the back of the net with 2:20 left in the first half.
The two teams battled for most of the second half. Bloom-Carroll freshman Lydia Hartlein scored to close out the scoring with 2:42 remaining.
Both goalies were solid throughout. The Bulldogs’ Lauryn Pinkerton finished with six saves, while Fairfield Union’s Sadie Schultz had seven, including several outstanding save to prevent the score from being worse.
“The upperclassmen understand how important this game is, and we played two freshmen, so they now understand how important this game is,” Casperson said.
Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at [email protected] for comments or story tips. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter twil2323.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Bloom-Carroll girls soccer beats Fairfield Union Ohio rivalry game
Category: General Sports
