By Pete Conrad for the Hamilton Journal News

CENTERVILLE — The Ross girls soccer team lost a chance to play for a district championship, but the Rams gained a good deal of respect from one of Ohio’s more prestigious programs Monday night.

Senior forward Ashley Vaughn scored a pair of second-half goals to lead the fourth-seeded Centerville Elks over the unseeded Rams 4-2 in the Division I, Dayton 1 district semifinals.

“That’s a fine club,” Centerville coach Don Skelton said of Ross. “That No. 12 is a blue-chipper. She is a Division I college prospect as far as I’m concerned.”

Skelton was referring to senior midfielder Jaimie Roberts, who scored both goals for Ross. But anyone who watched the Rams this season knows Ross is about as far from being a one-player team as a team can get, and it showed against the Elks. The final score could just as easily have been 4-2, in favor of Ross.

“I’m very proud of my seniors, who led us all the way,” Ross coach Fred Hibbs said, referring to Juliana Gross, Roberts, Abbey Slaughter and Lauren Vangen. “It’s just unfortunate that the ball didn’t go our way. It’s been a great season.”

It was Ross (12-4-3) which spent most of the first half pounding away at the Centerville net, peppering senior goalie Kelly Robie with three shots on goal in a three-minute span early in the half.

But it was Centerville (15-2-2) which took a 1-0 lead on a header by Laura Kavanaugh, assisted by Courtney Parsons, at the 28:19 mark.

Robie made a sensational diving save of a shot by Danielle Hogue, but the Rams were not to be denied and with 20:45 left in the half Roberts tied the score with an assist from Vangen.

Centerville regained the lead 2-1 when Taylor Hoffman scored from 40 yards out on a penalty kick which barely cleared the uplifted arms of Ross keeper Jenny Young at the 16:02 mark.

Ross coach Fred Hibbs noted it was difficult for Young to leap for the ball. “She got kicked at the beginning of the match, got kicked in the knee, and she was pretty much lame for the rest of the night,” he said.

Young, as a matter of fact, was the Rams’ third goalie this year. The first moved out of the school district early in the season. The second, senior Traci Frommer, was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident and is not yet back to school.

“There’s not much you can do about it,” Hibbs said about the loss of players, and he could have said the same thing about Monday’s field conditions, which included a large puddle — or small pond — near the middle of the field. A steady drizzle fell through most of the contest and the field was muddy and soggy and cold.

“It came down to conditions,” Hibbs said. “The goalies can’t move their feet and the ball slips off their hands.”

It wasn’t much better for the other players.

“It’s hard to play in these conditions,” Roberts said. “It’s cold, you can’t tell which way the ball is going when it bounces, and it’s hard to control the ball.”

According to Skelton, “It made the ball skip, made it a quicker game as far as the passing. I think both teams played right through it. Both teams adjusted to it.”

Centerville took a 3-1 lead with 31:21 to go in the second half when Vaughn scored off an assist by Parsons (her second), but Ross answered with another goal by Roberts, assisted by Gross, with 21:18 to go.

It was anybody‘s game, and the Rams’ Tiffany Glore came within inches, seemingly, of tying the score when her shot barely missed the target with 9:27 on the clock. Glore had another near miss at 8:25 on a long, looping shot.

Centerville finally put the game away when Vaughn, assisted by Molly Shields, scored her second goal on a breakaway with 5:57 remaining.

“We’ve had instances where we just play along against a team we really should dominate,” Skelton said. “It was good to see us step up and play with such great intensity against a team (Ross) that offers so much.”

Hibbs said he was happy that his team was able to score multiple goals against Centerville.

“We’ve got a lot of firepower and weapons on this team,” he said. “It’s been a good season, especially after starting off 2-3-3.”

“I’d trade those two goals of mine for a win,” Roberts said, noting that “the first half of the season was very rocky. We really picked it up, started playing together. This team has a lot of heart.”

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