Staff photo / Brian Yauger
Fitch junior Melina Carrabbia moves down the field while being chased down by Harding defender Ky’ziya Minor. Carrabbia scored the Falcons’ one and only goal on Monday.
AUSTINTOWN — No matter the sport, league games in the All-American Conference are always crucial tilts.
Fitch junior Melina Carrabbia scored the game-sealing goal on a penalty kick with seven minutes remaining to push the Falcons past Harding, 1-0, on Monday.
“I feel as though we’ve had so many learning experiences in these games and just little lapses that have kind of kept us from being competitive and from winning and having a result,” Falcons coach Kara Garland said. “So coming out tonight, on senior night, with two games left in the regular season, (I told them) ‘Let’s just put together a full game. Let’s put together 80 minutes of solid play,’ and the girls delivered. We had shaky moments, but players came up big. Jordan (Corll) came up big. We had some opportunities that we didn’t convert defensively. I felt like we were decent, but I’m really excited to get a win tonight.”
Scoring chances came at a premium on Wednesday, and with Corll in net, those chances were stopped.
At the tail end of the first half, the senior made a series of impressive saves to keep the game scoreless.
“She bails us out so many times,” Garland said. “So many times I’m like, ‘Oh, this is a goal,’ and she just comes out of nowhere with huge saves, and she did it again tonight. We’re going to miss her tremendously, just what she brings to the back line in terms of her distribution, her vision, her communication, and just being able to win those 1v1 situations.”
Despite having multiple opportunities in the final five minutes, even down to the waning seconds, the Raiders couldn’t score.
Harding falls to 7-7-2.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” Raiders coach Kevin Brown said of the late opportunities. “We had two off the crossbar today. They were awarded a PK with seven minutes left in the game. It’s a little deflating. … They still battled. They didn’t give up after that went in. I thought we had a chance to tie it, and I’m happy with our effort today.”
Both teams look to close their regular season out on a high note on Wednesday. Harding travels to Canfield while Fitch hosts rival Boardman.
As Fitch (3-10-2) enters the postseason, the Falcons are looking to thrive in “their” style of play. Cleaning up possession in the final third of the field will boost that.
“Part of our style is possession, and possession in all thirds of the field,” Garland said. “We’ve struggled in the attacking third. We’ve struggled transferring possession from the middle third to the attacking third, so I think just trying to continue to clean up those areas, and I feel like we did break through. We did have some balls that got in behind their back line, we were able to swing, play some crosses and we weren’t really able to get those in other games, so I think if we continue to do that, then Boardman should be a great game, just like tonight’s.”