NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Black River tried to take a win away from North Ridgeville on Saturday night, but the Rangers held on and pulled out a 50-38 non-conference girls basketball win.
The win was the first for new Rangers coach Amy Esser, who comes to North Ridgeville after three years as Bay’s varsity assistant.
Trailing 42-26 going into the fourth quarter, the Pirates outscored North Ridgeville 12-4 to cut the lead to eight with three minutes to play only to hit a dry spell and go scoreless the last 2:30. Meanwhile, the Rangers’ Kayla Vidoni sank 4-of-6 free throws to push the lead back to 12.
“I thought we ran the ball really well although we started out a little slow with shooting and things like that,” Esser said. “We were a little nervous at the start, but we buckled down and played defense. We actually let them shoot and I thought that worked for us because we did a good job of rebounding.”
The Rangers pulled down 36 rebounds to 33 for Black River
Pirates coach Bill Roniger was a happy man despite the outcome.
“I liked the way we hustled,” he said. “Playing back-to-back games, losing in overtime to Lake Ridge Academy by one and then coming here and playing against this team that had a lot of players returning from last year, I thought we really played well. I like the way we handled their pressure. We were down by 16 and came back to cut it to eight, but we ran out of a little bit of gas and a little bit of time.”
The game was a replay of last year when the Rangers traveled to Black River and got their first and only win of the season.
“This will not be the only win this season if I have anything to say about it,” Esser said.
Roniger believes there’s a bright future ahead for his team.
“This team never quit,” he said. “They gave it everything they have. I feel we will do nothing but get better.”
All 11 players scored for the Rangers, led by Kaitlyn Berghaus with 10, but it was the Pirates Krystal Coffman who took game-high scoring honors with 11.

North Ridgeville 50, Black River 38

NORTH RIDGEVILLE (50): Kaitlyn Berghaus 4-0-10, Haley Schroeder 3-2-8, Maggie Kachmarik 3-1-7, Ashley Anderson 3-1-7, Kayla Vidoni 1-4-6, Brianna Becker 2-0-4, Kelsey Swindell 1-0-2, Alexis McGhee 1-0-2, Jenna King 1-0-2, Deanna Garcia 0-1-1, Haley Gall 0-1-1.Totals 18-11-50.
BLACK RIVER (38): Krystal Coffman 4-3-11, Charleigh Carr 3-0-7, Alicia Altenburger 3-0-6, Corrisa Hoffman 2-1-5, Tiffany Hollinshead 2-1-5, Caitlin Eishen 1-0-2, Danielle West 1-0-2, Amanda Markiewicz 0-0-0, Jill Miller 0-0-0, Felicia Cunningham 0-0-0. Totals 15-7-38.
North Ridgeville    6    19    17    8    —    50
Black River    10    5    11    12    —    38
Three-point goals: North Ridgeville 2 (Berghaus 2), Black River 1 (Carr). Rebounds: North Ridgeville 36 (Kachmarik 9), Black River 33 (Coffman 10). Turnovers: North Ridgeville 24, Black River 31. Total fouls: North Ridgeville 23, Black River 19. Fouled out: Black River (Hollinshead).
JV: North Ridgeville 42 Black River 23. 

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