By Cort Reynolds / Photos by Aftan Dewese

COLUMBUS GROVE__Playing their third road game in four days, the visiting Ada High School girls soccer team dug deep to rally late and defeat powerful Columbus Grove 4-3 in a wet, seesaw “Battle of the Bulldogs” on Thursday evening, Sept. 18.

Junior Rose Baxter tallied a hat trick for Ada with three goals, including the final tiebreaker.

The purple and gold Bulldogs led 1-0 at the half, then each team netted three goals in a wild second half.

Ada improved to 8-1-2 overall with the impressive non-league road victory. CG dropped to 5-2 overall after the home loss.

“I cannot express how absolutely proud I am of these girls,” enthused Ada Bulldog head coach Doug Dewese. “This was a very hard week with three games and only one training session, and probably two of our toughest games to date at Riverdale and Grove.

“To come out of this week 2-0-1 is awesome,” he continued. “This was a full gut-it-out game. The girls were exhausted after the Riverdale game Wednesday night, and they figured out a way to beat a 5-1 Columbus Grove team on a muddy, waterlogged field.

“We had girls fighting off injuries and soreness, and finding a way to not only win but come from behind and fight back for the win,” he remarked.

”Our back line was stout and Emily Gibson gave us some key saves. I was also happy Rose got her hat trick after a really good effort,” he stated. 

Sophomore Maycie Dewese netted the other Ada goal.

Ada led 1-0 at intermission on a Baxter goal before Grove tied it 1-1 early in half two. Ada surged back in front 2-1 in the back-and-forth contest on another Baxter score, but CG tied it 2-2. 

Grove took its first lead 3-2 by netting a penalty kick with 25 minutes remaining.

Ada tied it 3-3 five minutes later on a placed kick from about 40 yards out by the strong-legged Dewese.

“Maycie’s tying goal off the long placed kick seemed to give us that last kick to finish strong, and also seemed to take the air out of Grove,” the coach noted. “I could go on and on about our player’s efforts. It was a super job out of the team as a total group.”

Baxter then netted the winning goal with 13 minutes to go. 

Ada senior Kenley Poling dished out one assist. Keeper Emily Gibson made 17 saves in goal for Ada.

Ada (0-1-1) hosts new North Central Ohio Soccer Association member Northwood (0-5, 0-1 NCOSA) on Monday, Sept. 21.

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