Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes
Girard senior Maya Serrano chases after the ball during the first half at Poland. The Indians couldn’t keep pace with Poland in a 7-0 Northeast-8 Conference victory.

POLAND — It’s been a season of adjustments and trials for every soccer team in the state.

Teegan Graff had to make a sudden change from the midfielder position recently during her senior campaign in Poland.

In only her second game as a striker, she zipped through the Girard defense for four goals, and helped the Bulldogs rout the Indians 7-0.

“I think we’re starting to learn how to finish the ball and stuff going into playoffs, that’s really important, especially in big games,” the senior said. “We need to start working on connecting more of those since this is our first game where we started to change up the playout.

“It’s kinda cool being able to finish and stuff (as a striker), and be in the glory spot.”

She found the net early with a goal within the first five minutes of the game, and scored again only seconds later. Before halftime she’d already earned herself a hat trick and scored once more late in the match.

Bulldogs coach Joel Monaco is proud that Graff stepped up into a new position this late in the season.

“Anytime we ask her to do something, she does it,” he said “She steps up and we’re thankful for all of our seniors who do that. It doesn’t matter where we ask them, they are always willing and able to do it for us.”

Besides scoring four times, she also had an assist. She excels at the backwards pass, a move that helps her team offensively.

“Playing in club for most of my life, it’s a very technical thing, but it works very well, especially when you’re trying to get the play behind you,” she said. “It’s not the easiest but I’ve gotten a lot of practice with it.

“It makes you a very hard player to mark when you can dribble, shoot, and pass, especially when you have a whole team like that, you’re mostly likely going to go to state when you have valuable players like that. It’s very important to be diverse in everything.”

Fellow senior Emillie Franco had a pair of goals herself.

“Honestly, we all work really great together and our freshmen, they’re amazing,” Franco said “They’re coming right off the bench into varsity game and they’re really just putting up a good game and we all play great together.”

Freshman such as Mary Brant and Ariel Grischow saw big minutes against Girard.

“We work so great together, our freshman, like they come in and we make them feel welcome right off the bat and I feel like that’s such an important part especially in a varsity game,” Franco said.

Poland is now 6-5-2 and recorded their fifth shutout of the season. Juniors Mia Marantis had a goal and an assist, along with Avery Grischow who had four assists.

Girard fell to 4-9, and Indians coach Kayla Richey felt Poland’s defense was sturdy.

“Poland is a tough team, I thought our passing was pretty good,” she said. “We couldn’t really get past their defensive line, we had a couple shots on goal. They’re a tough team, and they’re quick.”

She remains positive with somes games left on the schedule.

“We’ve been competing, trying our best, doing our best. I think we still have a couple games left, we could win some of those and then regroup and come back as a threat in the playoffs.”

A lot of laughter and smiles could be seen from the Bulldogs, but Franco just enjoys the opportunity to play.

“Honestly, we’re grateful to even have a season right now, so we’re making the best of it,” she explained. “I think just having fun is such an important part of the game.”

With the playoffs slowly looming on the horizon, Monaco thinks that Poland will be ready.

“This is the time when you want to get hot and we are seeming to show some trending upwards in that area,” Monaco said. “There’s always room to improve what we’re doing, but we’re happy with the direction we’re headed.”