Woodmore senior forward Taylor Avers has been awarded outright Northern Buckeye Conference Player of the Year. That’s one up from last year.

Last year, she shared the Suburban Lakes League Co-Player of the Year award with Lake junior midfielder Shelby Antonacci, but the 12-4-1 Flyers celebrated a league championship this year.

“It’s really nice because it’s a new league. Last year, I shared it with another girl and this year I’ve got it all to my own. That’s nice,” Avers said.

Woodmore senior forward Taylor Avers

Coach Malcolm Edge said, “She thoroughly deserved to (get POY). She’s just one incredible athlete. But you know the greatest thing about her, and I noticed this when we played Otsego toward the end of the season — she was on 29 goals and I was willing her to get to 30 because that would mean back-to-back 30 goal seasons, and she passed up time after time the opportunity to score the 30th goal because she wanted to give the ball to another player to score. That’s greatness to me. I am a big, big, enthusiastic supporter of her.”

Avers scored 34 goals her junior season and 31 this year. During her four-year career, she scored 76 goals — a school record that Coach Malcolm Edge believes will never be broken.

Avers is playing indoor soccer this winter and running indoor track while considering where she will play college soccer next year.

“I’m really thinking about playing at Owens. I’m looking at a few other colleges, but it’s probably most likely going to be Owens. My sister goes there, and it’s close to home and I get to stay with my family,” Avers said.

Edge added, “She’ll be a fantastic recruit for Owens because it’s local for her, and she’ll make some immediate contributions as a freshman and can go on to a four-year college from there. I do know as a senior I think her mind is totally focused right now on getting to Owens. She’s going to be a great asset to Owens and if she really wanted to there are plenty of Division II and III schools that are looking at her.”

Woodmore’s first sectional game finished with a disappointing loss to Genoa. The game was played in Genoa on Oct. 23 after being rescheduled twice due to heavy rain.

The Comets took the lead early in the game; Genoa was up 2-0 at the end of the first half. During halftime, Edge pushed the team to get ready for the second half telling the girls to fight for the ball. Avers put Woodmore on the score board first and earned the Wildcats two goals, but the Comets fought back hard.

Coach Edge changed the formation after the first goal, but the scoring alternated between the Wildcats and Comets two more times. The final score, 5-3, ended the season for the Wildcats.

“I am disappointed,” Edge said. “We didn’t show up. We certainly played hard against Genoa in terms of soccer, but Genoa deserved the win. No doubt about that. I guess I was disappointed and the girls were very disappointed in their overall performance. We got 2-0 down, we did not play very well, and we did not pass the ball very well. Our first touch and our second touch were really bad that day. The truth be told, Genoa deserved it.”

Junior midfielder Shannon O’Connor also scored for Woodmore. For Genoa, forward Rachael Albright scored twice and forward Melanie Gregory, Olivia Malcolm, and Erin Schwamberger each scored once

“We had a great season, but we just didn’t come out and play our best game,” said junior goalie Leah Bench

The final result of this year’s season was 11-4-2, and the league performance was 8-2. The last home game for the seniors was on Oct. 6 when the Wildcats faced Eastwood and won 3-2.

“The team’s best qualities were speed, team unity, the progress of ball control skills and the best passing the program has seen,” said Edge.

Four Woodmore girls received first team all-league honors: Avers, O’Connor, senior defender Cassandra Heidebrink and Bench.

Three Woodmore girls received second team recognitions: senior midfielder Brittney Wolford, sophomore midfielder Leah Henry and defender Alison Wank. Woodmore forward Cailey Willhardt is honorable mention.

Avers said it will be tough to leave her teammates and coaches at Woodmore.

“It meant a lot because it was my senior year and it was my last year to play with everybody there. I will miss them a lot,” Avers said. “I was happy we were such a close team. I wish we would have gone farther in the tournament, but we did get second in our league.

“(Edge) helped me out because when I was a freshman and a sophomore, I was mostly playing mostly defense and only a couple times did I play forward. After a few years, I was a forward and I got experience up there.”

Other local first team All-NBC choices are Antonacci, Lake defender Hannah Cox, Genoa defender Abigail Karikas, Eastwood defender Adrienne Getz, Rossford midfielder Sarah Waggoner, Eastwood midfielder Courtney Niswander, Lake midfielder Jordyn Taylor, and Lake forward Kayla Encalado.

Second team choices are Albright, Lake defender Lauren Reed, Rossford defender Cacey Mullins, Genoa midfielder Alexis Ortiz, Eastwood forward Danielle Jensen, Eastwood forward Saige Smith, and Lake goalkeeper Ashley Timmons.

Honorable mention choices are Gregory, Eastwood defender Emily Helm, Genoa defender Nicole Kraemer, Rossford defender Jenny Destatte, Lake defenders Rebecca Boos and Catie Phalen, Eastwood midfielder Katherine Przybylski, Genoa midfielder Nicole Dominique, and Eastwood forward Reagan Boice.

(Charlotta Makinen is a Woodmore senior who writes for the school newspaper, Window to Woodmore. Some of her story from the October issue was used with permission from advisor Carolyn Nitz.)

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