By Michael Rich
Buckeye Valley, looking to catch Jonathan Alder in the MOAC-Red Division girls soccer standings, appeared to be in good shape when Jillian Hon scored five and a half minutes into the game.
The lead lasted less than 15 seconds, though, and the Barons fell to Alder 6-1 on Monday night in Delaware.
Hon beat Pioneers goalie Nora Squires to her right to give the Barons (6-4-1, 3-3) an early 1-0 lead.
“She tests me every day and she becomes a better player and she works hard,” Barons coach Shannon Schneider said of Hon. “She comes to Saturday practices, she comes to Sunday practices, she asks me for extra practice and it shows on the field how hard she actually works.”
But the lead didn’t last long. Alder (9-2, 7-0) took the ensuing kickoff and maneuvered through the Baron defense before Autumn Devine found daylight in the right corner of the goal to tie it 1-1 less than 15 seconds after the Baron goal.
“It shouldn’t affect us, but it’s obviously going to a little bit … just after we got some momentum, they came right back,” Schneider said. “You gotta keep that momentum and not let down. Defensively, we’ve got some holes to fix.”
Five minutes later, the Pioneers took the lead for good on a goal by Lilly Hess.
“I think of everything as a learning process,” Schneider said. “So, everything that we did wrong in this game, is something that we’ll do right in the next game.”
Kristen Beachy added a goal with 6:16 left in the half to give the Pioneers a 3-1 lead.
Senior captain Alivia Milesky added two goals in the second half and Alexa Toller added a late goal for the Pioneers.
“I think this bodes well for the future — we can hang with them” Schneider said. “I think that in the next couple of years, Jonathan Alder and Buckeye Valley will be competing for the number one spot in the conference.”
Though the loss didn’t cost the Barons third place, they are now two games behind second-place Fairbanks and three back of Alder in the loss column with three league games remaining.
Buckeye Valley plays at River Valley Monday evening at 5 p.m.
Follow Michael Rich on Twitter @mrichdelgazette.
