SPENCERVILLE – Tuesday night in Spencerville was meant to celebrate the teams five seniors but turned into a night of celebration for a different reason as the Bearcats broke the school record for goals in a game on their way to a 12-0 WOSL victory over Fairlawn.
For the second time this season the Bearcats found themselves with a double digit scoring effort and broke their previous record of 11 goals scored that was set just over two weeks ago during an 11-2 victory at Northwest Conference mate Paulding on September 14th.
Spencerville sophomore Will Gallaspie started the scoring for the home team at 35:11 on an assist from teammate Joel Van Gorder who fed the speedy forward a pass that he quickly sent on a slow roll past Fairlawn keeper Kobi Jones for a 1-0 Bearcat lead.
Despite being a night to honor his senior teammates, Gallaspie took over the spotlight once again just six minutes later as he sent a redirected ball into the back of the net for his 19th goal of the season and a 2-0 advantage at 29:08 to go in the half.
Van Gorder got himself into the scoring column with 28:41 remaining in the half as he raced a screamer to the top left of the goal past Jones for a 3-0 lead and followed up with his second goal on a bouncing ball through the legs of Jones with 24:33 on the clock for a 4-0 score.
Leading on the scoreboard and in the shot category the Bearcats pushed their lead up to a 5-0 mark with 18:14 remaining in the first half as Gallaspie struck again to complete his hat trick on a top shelf blast for his 20th goal of the year.
Not to be outdone in the scoring contest between himself and Gallaspie, Van Gorder notched his own personal hat trick at 11:31 on a shot from the top of the box that zoomed into the top right corner of the box to run the lead to 6-0.
Freshman forward Isaiah Stewart’s second goal of the 2020 campaign made it a 7-0 lead in the first half with 7:56 to go and was the first of two in quick succession for the Cats as it was joined moments later by a bouncer through the middle by senior captain Evan Core’s fourth of the year at 3:36.
Joel Van Gorder struck through the Jets defense for his fourth goal of the first half and completed the Bearcats scoring in the opening 40 minutes of play as he took a lead pass and rolled it though the bottom left with :22 for a 9-0 halftime advantage.
Having faced just a pair of shots from Fairlawn in the first half, Spencerville’s starting keeper Dominic Adkins moved into the field to play forward and teamed with classmate Noah Kimmet as the duo attempted to net their first goals of the season in the second half.
Unfortunately for Adkins it was Kimmet who would become the first and only member of the duo to accomplish the feat as he bodied in a bouncing ball to the left of keeper Jones for a 10-0 lead with 27:49 that gave the Bearcats their second 10 goal or more effort of the season and in school history.
Perhaps fueled by an attempt to match the four goals already put up by his teammate Joel Van Gorder, Bearcat forward Will Gallaspie grabbed a loose ball just in front of his teams goal and raced through the entire Jets defense to the opposite end of the Memorial Field pitch where he sent a ball to the bottom left corner of the goal for his fourth of the evening and 21st of the season at 11:05 remaining.
Isaiah Stewart kicked in the final goal of the ballgame with 3:27 remaining to finalize the 12-0 win and set the new standard for goals in a game for Spencerville to secure the victory.
Fairlawn (0-9) has now been outscored 59-5 on the road this season and will travel to West Liberty Salem on Saturday at noon for their next contest.
Spencerville (6-1-2) moves 3-0-1 in Western Ohio Soccer League play and sits in second place behind Botkins. The Bearcats have outscored their opponents 22-5 at home and will look to defend their home turf on Monday evening at 7:00 P.M. when NWC foe Ada visits in a game that will be broadcast live on Zsports3