Norwalk girls cruise to fifth straight

NORWALK — So far, so good. Even in what could be considered a transition year, the early going for the Norwalk girls soccer season hasn't seen much change. The Truckers rolled to their fifth straight win to start the season on Monday, scoring eight times in the first half of a 12-0 win over visiting Tiffin Columbian in a Sandusky Bay Conference match at Contractors Stadium. Norwalk has outscored its five opponents by a 42-0 margin. "Obviously we're off to a good start and we haven't been challenged a ton yet, but there is a lot of difficult matches ahead," Norwalk head coach Michelle Sandor said. "If we're healthy, our "11 strong" as we like to say are a great group. We need to stay healthy and keep our 11 playing great together. "We have some big offensive threats who can score at any time, and it's always great to have several players who can find the back of the net." That scoring threat starts with freshman Claire Spettle. She recorded her second straight five-goal performance in the win over the Tornadoes, and has already totaled 17 goals and four assists in her team's five wins. "I really love my teammates and we've played well together," Spettle said. "A lot of us have played together for a long time already. It helps with our team chemistry. "We're playing well, but we need to stay focused on what's in front of us." Despite her age, Spettle has found herself a marked player by opposing teams. "I guess it's hard sometimes, but you have to plan for it and use other aspects of your game," she said. "Lately, we've been doing better with passing and communication — so we want to keep improving on that and getting better in practice every day." Also in Monday's win, junior Abby Koenig, and sophomores Taryn Temple and Audrey Sanders each scored twice. Freshman Anna Wright added a goal, while freshman CJ Bennett had two assists and sophomore Xavi Immel had one. "We've been looking to be more creative offensively," Sandor said. "We're trying to see if we can find some diagonal balls and use different options to get around players." Defensively, Norwalk has a new lineup from a year ago. Sandor cited junior Bella Koelsch, sophomore Ella Andrews and junior Lilly Farmer at goalkeeper. "We've had to work hard at our defense," Sandor said. "We need to keep working on that after we graduated all of our defenders. It's a brand new three back there, but Bella has really stepped into a great leader in the center, and Lilly is doing a great job in goal. "Ella is much better from last year, and her ability to find passes has greatly improved. We've got some speed back there with some other players who have also provided a different look." Norwalk (4-0 SBC) travels to Edison (3-4-1, 1-3-1) on Wednesday before visiting Lexington (3-2) in a big non-league test on Saturday. After that, the Truckers have matches against Huron, Vermilion and Perkins. The Sailors and Pirates promise to be huge tests in particular With no seniors on the roster, Sandor is excited to see what several players, notably Spettle, can do as the schedule strengths. "I think we'll see obviously in some of those big matches what they can do," she said. "We're excited to see how Claire responds in some of those matches, and what she brings for us there. She's developing every game and learning more and learning to become more of a leader for us. "Those are important steps for her to take, and I think her game is going to continue to keep growing," Sandor added. "She helps make the rest of us better, too. She can see the passes and opportunities and lead players where to go. She does a lot for us, and it's going to be exciting where she and this entire team is going to go."