The Chillicothe-Unioto battle for the Ross County Cup trophy was all Lady Tanks.
The Shermans reached the Regionals last year and Unioto's Morgan Gumm says a return trip would suit her fine. "We want to do what we did last year, try to win Regionals."
Tuesday night against Chillicothe, Unioto looked like the form they had last October before having their season end in Fairborn, Ohio.
The Cavaliers entered the contest 11-1, outscoring their opponents 48-8. The Shermans were 7-2-3 with their losses coming to state powerhouse teams from DeSales and Bishop Hartley.
Jenny Campbell found the back of the net at 27:19 in the first half to break the ice and Unioto rolled to a 6-1 victory.
Campbell's goal was followed up just 3 minutes later by Morgan Gumm's long distance shot from about 25 yards out for a 2-0 lead.
The Cavaliers, who hadn't allowed a goal in six straight matches, were playing on their heels most of the first 40 minutes. In fact, Chillicothe failed to make a shot on goal for nearly 9 minutes.
The Cavs had an opportunity with 24 seconds remaining on a penalty kick by Casey Crow which was stopped by goal keep Ashley Flautt.
Prior to that though, it was all Unioto. Kyleen Muirhead put in a header at 1:39 and Campbell chipped in another shot at :51 and the Shermans closed out the half with a 4-0 lead.
"I'm pretty disappointed." said Cavs coach Zach Breth. "We came out and didn't play our style of play, we weren't patient, we were just a different team tonight."
Chillicothe started the scoring less than three minutes into the second half when Lindsey Schobeloch kicked in a ball that got through Flautt on a corner kick from Crow.
Then came what Breth called the "ol' after goal let down". Freshman Kaylah Peele popped a point blank goal to put Unioto back up by four, 5-1.
"That fifth goal was just fantastic..." said Breth, "it was the kind of goal, that should be scored. We had momentum, we had the ball, we started to play our style of play, we scored the goal, and then they came right back at us."
As for the quick start, Shermans coach Mark Williamson hopes his kids find that kind of magic again.
"Historically we're kind of a slow team, we build up, get confident and play better as the game goes on. Tonight we were forunate to get some in early and finish it off."
Unioto has battled injury from the start of the season, losing their leading scorer Erin Bane with a knee injury. But Williamson adds "We came in to it with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder, I'll be honest with you... We lost Erin Bahne our leading scorer in the second game of the season. We had some kids step up tonight, Kayla Peele scored a goal, she's a freshman Emily Corcoran played a lot of good minutes for us, and Claire Bechie... it's coming together, and all the adversity we've been through, they're using that to their advantage."
"This is a really big game on our schedule for us." said Flautt. "It was really important for us to win this game tonight."
Unioto (8-2-3) will head to Lancaster Thursday night and finish the regular season with Jackson Saturday.
The Cavs are home with Zane Trace Thursday. The Pioneers, who tied Unioto earlier in the season, are ranked 9th in the Division 3 standings.
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Hear post game interviews below.
