Photos by Steven Wright | Greene County News
Bellbrook head coach Brad Stork (right) speaks with his team at halftime of Tuesday’s home win against Edgewood. The Golden Eagles are off to an undefeated start and should be one of the favorites to win the SWBL this season.
Bellbrook freshman Ashelyn Barrios (9) is joined in celebration by her teammates after scoring her first career goal during the first half of Tuesday’s game against Edgewood.
Netting two goals in Tuesday’s match was Bellbrook senior Ava Spirk (6). Bellbrook has scored 15 team goals in its four wins.
Bellbrook junior Georgie Earley (16) gives a playful shove to junior Jordan Frantz (0) after Tuesday’s win after Frantz picked up her third shut out in four matches in goal this season.
BELLBROOK — Tuesday’s 7-0 home win against Edgewood didn’t provide any realistic teaching moments for the Bellbrook girls soccer team.
Head coach Brad Stork said when he saw the two-game schedule for the week with another contest against Franklin on Thursday, he thought it would be a nice break for the team after a difficult three game stretch to begin the season.
What he didn’t realize before it began would be his Golden Eagles team emerging from that run of games unblemished.
Bellbrook is enjoying an unprecedented start to its season. After Tuesday’s victory to begin SWBL play, the Golden Eagles are now 4-0-0 overall.
But other Bellbrook teams have also previously reached that mark. None of them got to it in the same manner as this year’s team.
“We have beaten Beavercreek and we’ve never done that before,” Stork said. “We beat Alter and haven’t beat them since 2011. This has never happened before.”
The run of preseason matches for the team gave Stork an idea it had a chance to compete against quality opponents. A loaded slate against Division I schools Anderson and Fairfield out of Cincinnati in addition to Centerville saw the team perform well and begin to build self-belief they could match up against anyone.
It was immediately put to the test with home games against Lebanon and Beavercreek followed by the road trip to play Alter. Outscoring those three opponents 8-1, Bellbrook has announced it will be thought of as one of the top teams in the area.
“The girls actually are starting to believe that we’re as good as we are,” Stork said. “Being D-II will certainly help a lot of their confidence, but I think we could have competed at D-I this year.”
Bellbrook has done it with a team effort in all four wins.
Nine different players have scored the team’s 15 total goals. Georgie Earley has a goal in three different games, while Lily Schindler, Caitlyn Hansen, Mara Donnerberg and Ava Spirk also getting multiple goals.
No game displayed the group’s strength of numbers more than on Tuesday when six different players scored the team’s seven goals as the Golden Eagles applied relentless pressure on the net taking 21 shots with seemingly any player on the field creating space to get chances on goal.
Stork said he would like to see more bench depth be developed, and a game that played out as it did against Edgewood was a good start to get that to happen.
Not allowing goals has been as crucial to the Golden Eagles early success and Jordan Frantz has gotten the job done in net, producing three shut outs and saving 97 percent of the shots she has faced to rank at the top of the SWBL leaderboards.
“She’s getting a lot of attention and that one goal allowed was just a beautiful shot from Beavercreek,” Stork said. “… Our outside mids are good, our backline has been playing together awhile and are best friends and they’re just a super strong group.”
Bellbrook will have more chances to prove it isn’t an early season wonder. Games at Springboro, Carroll and Lakota East await, as does home matchups against Miamisburg and Milford. Those are in addition to the remainder of the league schedule, which is lightened this season with Waynesville being left off and Oakwood being the only divisional crossover opponent.
Stork said he plans to stress to his team the same effort will be needed against any opponent lined up on the other side of the field.
Continuing to play as an 11-player unit in support of one another has worked so far and has shown no signs of slowing the team down.
“When we play, we are really, really good,” he said. “We finally have seniors that have been with me from the beginning and they know what to expect. It’s been a big plus for everyone.”
Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on Twitter @Steven_Wright_.
