BAY VILLAGE — In a memorable championship struggle, Bay’s girls scored off a corner kick in the 78th minute Wednesday night to share the West Shore Conference soccer title with Avon.
Giuliana Pugliese’s header into the right corner produced a 2-1 win over the Eagles, who were previously unbeaten in the WSC and leading Bay by a game. It was the final conference game of the season for both.
Pugliese, a freshman defender, was stationed in front of the Avon goal when Rockets co-captain Kate Ludwig lofted her corner from the right side. When the ball hit the back of the net off Pugliese’s noggin, just 2:03 remained in the match. It was her third goal of the season.
Pugliese’s score was the culmination of a frenetic seven minutes during which the Rockets turned up the offense to white-hot. They were actually energized by Avon’s tying goal in the 64th minute, which resulted from a penalty kick by Eagles star Megan Repas.
Bay fans considered the call that led to the PK questionable. Until Repas scored the tying blast from the 12-yard dot, Bay had held onto a 1-0 lead for 52 minutes.
“I ran in, got my head on it and ‘boom,’” the happy Pugliese said of her game-winner.
Until she connected, the Rockets had gone 0-for-4 on corner kicks.
“We’ve had enough corners this season, we were due to get one,” said Ludwig, a senior. “We’ve been working on some new corners, but that wasn’t one of them.”
The match drew a sizeable crowd to Bay Memorial Stadium in what Rockets coach Jack Griffiths called a “blue-out.” Bay’s colors are blue and white. It was also seniors night, and the crowd included Rockets JV players, city youth-league players and others, most of them wearing something blue.
“This has been our goal since the beginning of the season,” said the Rockets’ Megan Griffiths. “We really wanted to win.”
It looked as though it might be a 1-0 match after Bay freshman Anna Irvine scored in the 12th minute with an assist from senior Jackie Harris. It held up until the Rockets were whistled for a touch foul in the box in the 64th minute. That gave Repas her penalty kick, and she drilled it into the left corner past Bay keeper Megan Altieri.
The Rockets (8-5-2, 6-1 WSC) got off four clean shots during their final seven-minute onslaught, all of them on goal.
Sophie Kinkle hit a shot right at Avon goalkeeper Holly Kraus on the restart after an Eagles’ foul in the 71st minute. Maggie Irvine was right on from 25 yards two minutes later, and Bay earned its final unsuccessful corner kick in the 74th minute.
In the 75th minute, Ludwig hooked a hard drive that seemed to be destined for the net. But Kraus made a miraculous, diving save. It was the save of the game, but it merely prolonged the inevitable. Three minutes later, Ludwig and Pugliese hooked up for the winner.
“The effort was there and the girls gave themselves a chance to win,” said Avon coach Tony Demacchia, whose Eagles dropped to 12-3, 6-1 in the WSC. “You can’t ask for more than that. I thought we could have been more physical, and we were in the second half. I thought we were much more physical and intense the second half.”
Bay’s Jack Griffiths was delighted with a share of the championship in his first season as a varsity head coach.
“This was the game we’ve talked about since the start of the season,” he said. “This is the accumulation of our season. We knew it would be tough. We knew Avon would be a good game for us.”

Bay 2, Avon 1

GOALS: (A) Megan Repas (64th minute, pk). (B) Anna Irvine (12th minute), Giuliana Pugliese (78th minute).
ASSISTS: (B) Jackie Harris, Kate Ludwig.
SHOTS: Avon 9, Bay 13.
SHOTS ON GOAL: Avon 5, Bay 10.
SAVES: (A) Holly Kraus 9, (B)  Megan Altieri 4.
CORNER KICKS: Avon 1, Bay 5.
GOAL KICKS: Avon 9, Bay 7.
OFFSIDE: Avon 1, Bay 1.
HAND BALLS: Bay 1.
FOULS: Avon 4, Bay 11.
CARDS: (B) Sophie Kinkle (yellow), 31st minute; asst. coach Eaton (temp. eject.), 38th minute; Jackie Harris (yellow), 48th minute.
HALFTIME: Bay, 1-0.

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