ROCKY RIVER — Bay is going after its 10th regional soccer title Saturday at 3 p.m. against Lima Shawnee in Lexington after a hard-fought 2-1 Division II semifinal victory over Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary on a bitterly cold, snowy and windy Tuesday night at Rocky River High School.
With temperatures in the low 40s and sheets of snow blowing over the artificial turf, winds of over 30 mph off Lake Erie made precision soccer difficult for both teams.
All the scoring took place in the second half, with Bay’s senior Aaron Adkins breaking the deadlock with a long shot from 15 yards out on the right with 18:39 left in the game. Shane Williams got the assist.
Junior Dan Speisz put the Rockets (17-2-1) up 2-0 by rebounding a missed shot from Kyle Hyland into the net with 12:17 to go.
Andrew Over ruined Bay goalkeeper Nate McDonald’s shutout bid with a goal for St. Vincent-St. Mary (11-6-3) with a little over seven minutes remaining.
Bay’s last regional title was in 2006. The Rockets’ opponent Saturday advanced to the matchup by beating Sandusky Perkins 6-0 Tuesday night. Bay has made 20 regional appearances in 21 years, winning nine of them. The Rockets have three state titles to their credit, in 1972, 1990 and 1992.
“The weather was bitter,” said Adkins, who has 17 goals on the year. “It was awful. It slowed play down tremendously and the snow made the artificial turf slippery. But winning is priceless. There’s nothing like it. It was fun.”
“The weather definitely slowed us down,” said Speisz, who scored for the fifth time this season. “The wind made it tough to control the ball.”
“It was much better playing with the wind in the second half,” said Bay coach Bobby Dougherty. “The wind caused some ugly shots. But this artificial turf made things a whole lot better than it would have been years ago in the mud. Also, I don’t think our traction was hurt too much by the snow. I was pleased with the boys tonight. As for the cold, they stayed warm by running.
“Nate made some big saves for us.”
McDonald had three saves, two of them in the second half, as the Irish had only three shots on goal in the final 40 minutes. They took just 13 shots total, while Bay attempted 17 — eight of them on goal.
Both teams came close to scoring in the opening half, getting shots that went slightly high off the crossbar, Bay just seven minutes into the game, and St. Vincent-St. Mary, with 28:19 left in the first half.
Irish coach John Stavros quickly headed for the warm team bus and was unavailable for comment after the game.

 Bay 2, St. Vincent-St. Mary 1
GOALS: (B) Aaron Adkins, Dan Speisz. (SVSM) Andrew Over
ASSISTS: (B) Shane Williams
SHOTS: Bay 17, St. Vincent-St. Mary 13
SHOTS ON GOAL: Bay 8, St. Vincent-St.Mary 4
SAVES: (B) Nate McDonald 3; (SVSM) Matt Aberegg 6.
HALFTIME: 0-0

Contact Jerry Rombach at 329-7137
or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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