Badgers go from ‘Worst to First’

Four years ago, Berkshire’s fledgling girls’ soccer program went winless in the Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division.

On Thursday, the Badgers beat visiting Harvey, 5-0, to improve to 9-0 overall and 5-0 in league play. The team also claimed its first CVC title in school history.

“The seniors have actually had a motto, ‘From Worst to First,’” said Berkshire coach Rick Nerone. “Four years ago, we lost pretty big to all of these teams. We were 0-5 and my first year, three years ago, we were 0-5. Last year, we started to turn the corner with the senior leadership and this year, going from worst to first is awesome. It’s a credit to those seniors for their leadership, all of them, not just the captains. You don’t have to be a captain to be a leader and we’ve got some good ones.”

The Badgers have outscored their CVC opponents, 19-4, and all opponents, 48-7.

Coincidentally, the Badgers won their first league title on Senior Night, a fitting honor for a group responsible for turning the program into a contender.

Sophomore Lexi Boyk also made history in the win.

Boyk scored three goals to break the school’s all-time record for goals scored in a career. She now has 40 goals in just 25 games.

“A year and a half in, one year and nine games in, she’s got 40 career goals,” Nerone said. “She has 16 this year with three hat tricks. She flipped the switch. She’s always had the potential and, as a coach I’ve been hard on her, she doesn’t always like that, but performances like tonight and against Wickliffe, she’s played like an all-state player. She finally found herself.”

Boyk also had an assist in the game.

Julia Frank and Asya Martin also scored while Frank and Alyssa Wolfe pitched in with assists.

Martin’s goal was her first of the season.

“Between Asya and Lexi, those are two girls who can probably make all-state or be in consideration for it and conference player of the year, depending on how things go,” Nerone said. “That says a lot about Asya as a senior and a defender that she’s in that conversation and same with Lexi being only a sophomore.”

Catherine Lillibridge recorded six saves in notching her third clean sheet of the season.

The Badgers have seven regular season contests left to play and they have some lofty postseason goals.

Nerone’s job now is to keep the Badgers inspired after accomplishing the first of their goals.

“That’s the tricky part,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem with that. We go one game at a time. We’re not at the Kirtland, Elyria Catholic, Gilmour, Hawken level where we can look ahead. We’ve got to go one game at a time.”

The Badgers travel to Villa Angela-St. Joseph on Sept. 16 to face a dangerous Vikings squad.

“We’re playing a St. Joe’s team on Saturday who I heard is undefeated, so we’ve got to go out every game and play our best,” Nerone said. “Teams are now looking at us like, ‘Oh, man, we’ve got to give them our best game.’ We can’t take any days off because how we used to be three or four years ago when we played those teams, we tried to go in there and shock them all. We’ve got to give it our all every game because we might make someone’s year if they beat us. It’s crazy to think that at Berkshire how much it’s changed in four years.”