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St. Marys' Braelyn Baker (7) and Bath's Anna Rasor (9) chase down a loose ball.
ST. MARYS - Bath and St. Marys battled the heat at Roughrider Field on Tuesday evening in the Western Buckeye League girls soccer opener.
With early goals in each half, along with some bend-but-don't-break defense, the Roughriders prevailed 2-0 to improve to 3-1-0 on the young season.
The extreme heat and humidity canceled the JV game and forced first-year St. Marys coach Lilly Ankerman to alter her typical substitution strategy.
"Yes, 100 percent it made a difference," Ankerman said. "I was subbing way more than normal. I had girls playing in positions that they typically don't play in to compensate for the heat and to make sure that their teammates got subs. And every single one of them rose to the challenge and did what I needed them to do. I'm proud of all of them."
After turning back a couple early Bath breakaways, St. Marys struck first. Claire Turner cleaned up a loose ball in the box and parked it in the back of the Wildcat net at 31:12 mark of the first half for a lead the Riders would not surrender.
St. Marys' Claire Turner (26) tries to keep the ball away from Bath defender Gwyn Foust during Tuesday's WBL girls soccer matchup at Roughrider Field.
"It means everything to get that first goal," Ankerman said. "It's all about momentum. So you get the first goal, you have the momentum. You win both halves, you win the game."
Bath (1-3) out-shot St. Marys 5-3 in the first half and led in corner kicks 3-0.
"Props to Bath, they pressure a lot," Ankerman said. "They push hard and they push an offensive attack. They like to overload one side and force the opponent to defend it, and we defended it well."
Highlighting the defense was senior goal keeper Bella Hertenstein.
"She had quite a few amazing saves that, quite frankly, could have transpired into goals if she wouldn't have made the saves that she did," Ankerman added.
St. Marys solidified the momentum for the second half with a goal coming out of the break.
Braelyn Baker found Ellianna Weigel for an assist with Weigel's goal putting the Riders up 2-0 just over six minutes into the second half.
St. Marys will be back at Roughrider Field on Thursday for a non-league match against Bryan.
St. Marys' Kendal Davis (right) battles Bath's Kamielle Osting for control of the ball during Tuesday's match at Roughrider Field.
