Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
THE PLAINS — If there are two programs in the Southeast District who aren’t strangers to one other, it’s Fairfield Union and Athens.
After Tuesday night’s meeting, the Falcons and Bulldogs have now clashed six times over the past four seasons — including a 3-1 victory for Fairfield Union in last year’s Division II district final in the latest installment of the series.
Despite both squads coming into this season with plenty of new faces, another evenly-matched showdown awaited at Joe Burrow Stadium and it did not disappoint.
In the end, Fairfield Union (4-2) was able to slow down Athens’ tempo, capitalize on the attack, and head back to Lancaster with a much-needed 3-2 win over the Bulldogs.
CREDIT: Carissa Nickel/SOSA
“Coming down [to Athens], it’s very difficult. We’re playing on turf here, when we play on grass at home,” Falcons head coach Jarrod Redding said. “We love coming down here for the excitement of the game. [Athens] is a very good, high-quality team. We’re a young team who graduated a lot from last year. We’ve made incremental adjustments so far, but tonight we took a big step forward.”
Athens (4-2) drew first blood, playing fast out of the gate, which paid off. Sully Pelot scored off an assist from Michael Mends at the 31:48 mark to put Athens up 1-0.
But while the fast start was much-needed for Athens, Fairfield Union was then able to slow down the Bulldogs’ attack and get quality possessions of their own. When they did, the Falcons capitalized.
With 15:28 left in the first half, Kellan Nakanishi found the ball inside the box and fired, finding the back of the net for his first career goal and forcing a 1-1 tie.
Five minutes later, Logan Osborn brought the ball down the middle and successfully fired to the back-right corner, giving the Falcons a 2-1 advantage with 10:28 remaining — a score that would hold going into intermission.
“It felt really good, and it really boosted my confidence,” Nakanishi said after his goal. “I think that goal gave us a lot of momentum, so I feel like it meant a lot.”
“We came in and [Athens] hit us early. It started out as a track meet,” Redding said. “After a couple minutes in, we made some awesome adjustments to realize that we’re not going to beat them in a track meet. The guys made some adjustments and changed the way they were playing.”
PHOTOS: Images from Fairfield Union’s win over Athens
Things came to a stalemate in the opening minutes of the second half, however.
Athens looked to find its rhythm and regain some momentum, and it nearly found it.
With 32:06 left to play, Sully Pelot had the ball in the corner. Using his speed, he drove right past a Falcon defender and fired toward the net. What looked like an automatic goal for the Bulldogs was too good to be true as Pelot’s shot attempt ricocheted off the crossbar, allowing Fairfield Union to take back over.
Knowing they had just caught a huge break, the Falcons picked up the urgency and made Athens pay for the missed opportunity.
Osborn had the ball in the attacking third and had nothing but turf ahead of him. After drawing the Athens keeper to the far right side of the net, the junior found a wide open Cole Rowley down the middle, and assisted him for a much-needed insurance goal, extending the lead to 3-1 with 28:26 left.
Even after taking a huge blow, Athens wasn’t ready to go down without a fight.
After numerous trips into the attacking third with nothing to show for, the Bulldogs got another chance by way of a corner kick with 12:14 left. From there, Enzo Servedio received the corner and fired it into the net, cutting the deficit to 3-2.
The Bulldogs knew that time was running out and that they needed something quickly if they wanted to make things even. Winning the possession battle in the game’s final 10 minutes, Athens had numerous chances to tie the game. But Fairfield Union’s defense wiped away any chance for Athens to do so.
With 55 seconds left, Sully Pelot fired one last time to no avail, putting another win on the board for the Falcons — a statement road victory — by a 3-2 final.
“We talk about trying to keep them out of that attacking third and trying to head those balls away when we can,” Redding said. “When you can’t, then it’s time to get tough. I think we got tough tonight. We gave up the one goal early, and then the other was on a corner kick. When [Athens] got to the attacking third, we managed to make it very difficult on them tonight.”
Both teams are back in action on Thursday. While Athens looks to bounce back at home against Alexander, Fairfield Union faces another early-season test as it hosts Warren.
“We’ve had our struggles early, so we’ll take any win we can get, one after the next,” Redding said. “We come back two days from now against another really good Southeast District opponent, and then we go to our second league game on Saturday. We’ll definitely use a couple wins in a row here to try and springboard us into that.”
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