Medina soccer stays unbeaten; volleyball extends winning streak to five

Medina’s girls soccer team took on one of the state’s heavyweights over the weekend and, though nothing was settled in a 2-2 tie with Rocky River Magnificat, Medina showed it can play with the big timers — not that anybody likely doubted it.

Medina stayed unbeaten with the tie at 7-0-2.

“We’re looking forward to the second half of the season, and this was a good test and opportunity as we head into the next month,” Bees coach Jason Rutkowski said.

Trailing 2-0 at halftime, the Bees also showed they can deal with adversity. Medina dominated the second half to come away with the tie. Sophia Lazar got Medina on the board early in the second half with an unassisted goal. Olivia Saksa converted an Emma McTigue assist for the tying tally midway through the period.

Medina outshot the Blue Streaks 12-3.

“We’re proud of the group for overcoming the first-half deficit,” Rutkowski said. “At halftime we felt we had done enough positive things to be in a better position and we were confident we could generate opportunities to get a result. Scoring two goals and putting ourselves in a good position with chances late to almost go ahead is something we will build and grow from.”

The Bees started the week with a 9-0 win over Lorain in Greater Cleveland Conference play. Naomi Sundermeier scored two goals and had one assist to lead Medina. Ella Wilgor scored a pair. Maggie Wolny had two goals and an assist, while Lazar and McKanna Cobb had one of each. Ella Kautzman also scored. Alexa Donze, Jaycie Ma and Sydney Atkinson each had one assist.

Boys soccer

The Bees upped their overall record to 6-2-1 with a pair of victories this week. It started with a 9-0 Greater Cleveland Conference victory over Lorain and was capped with a 4-0 rout of Findlay on the road.

In the romp over Lorain, Cooper Fuller had a pair of goals and two assists to lead the scoring. Brody Gannon scored two goals. Nick Lapeus and Jayden Kulwicki each had a goal and an assist. Chase Wilbur, Cameron Moorman and Jack Pistak each scored one goal. Tyler Cobb, Xabier Abernathy and Ben Gardner each had an assist. Bennett Werthmuller and Jannik Sanders split the shutout in goal, with Werthmuller making the only two saves.

Gannon scored three times against Findlay, once via penalty kick. Aaron Cocklin scored the other Bees goal, also on a PK. Werthmuller and Cooper Korduba had assists for Medina.

Volleyball 

Medina won another pair of matches this past week to stretch its winning streak to five. That included a nonleague win over Cloverleaf and a Greater Cleveland Conference victory against Shaker Heights, moving Medina’s record to 6-7 after a rough 1-7 start.

The Bees survived a scare last Monday against Cloverleaf but stretched their streak to four with a five-set victory, 23-25, 26-24, 21-25, 25-22, 15-11, in a match that was in doubt throughout. Medina was led by senior Olivia Fedor and sophomore Kalea Tagalicod, each with 12 kills. Freshman Kate Schellenberger added 11 and senior Kiera Szuter chipped in nine. Fedor added four aces. Senior Leah McKinley had 19 digs, while junior Laura Sherman had 41 assists.

In a straight-sets win — 25-16, 25-20, 25-17 — against Shaker Heights, which evened Medina’s GCC record at 2-2, Schellenberger led with 11 kills. Sophomore Reese Kilgore had four aces. McKinley had 14 digs and Sherman had 28 assists.

Boys golf 

Medina had a strong day last week at the Stow Invitational at Silver Lake Country Club. Led by Trent Riedel, Declan West and Colin King, all of whom shot 79, Medina finished behind only St. Ignatius.

The Bees’ total of 318, which included a solid 81 from Cam Stafford, trailed the Wildcats by just five strokes. Medina also got an 87 from Elliot Morgan.

Cross country 

Last week, Addison Joffre was Medina’s fifth scorer in the Boardman Spartan Invitational, meaning she was among the Bees’ scorers in the race. Her time of 21:09 was good for 32nd place. Joffre’s original time and place were incorrectly listed in initial posted race results.