CV counted on Clements

By Dominick DiRienzo

November 29, 2008 12:08 am

— Conneaut Valley girls soccer coach Brian Kebort isn’t sure if Lauralee Clements is Conneaut Valley’s single-season scoring leader, but he does know she was his most dependable scoring option this season.
Clements, a sophomore at Linesville High School, scored 23 goals and assisted on eight more, as the Indians put together their best season yet with a 10-8 overall and 9-5 Region 2 record. The Conneaut Valley girls soccer team is a cooperative with the Conneaut School District high schools (Conneaut Valley, Linesville and Conneaut Lake).
“As a forward we depend on her a lot as far as scoring,” Kebort said.
Kebort said that Clements capitalized on her speed mostly to get free and create scoring opportunities.
Clements, 15, said she gets excited when she scores, but that she is not always looking to score.
“When I get the ball, I’ll look around to see if a teammate is open,” she said. “But if I can’t find anyone and it looks like I could get to the goal, I’ll try to score.”
And she has converted on many of those opportunities. She has scored 34 goals the last two seasons.
“She has excellent foot skills. She has tons of speed,” Kebort said. “Once she gets past people she heads straight toward the goal. She is tough to catch.”
Not only on the soccer field, but on the cross country trail, too. She spent the fall going back and forth between the soccer field and the cross country trail.
“Her and Karen Moyer ... played soccer and ran cross country,” Kebort said. “Sometimes they would run cross country in the morning and play a whole game later that day. They didn’t like to come out, they preferred to stay in the game.”
And with her scoring ability, she was often able to keep the Indians in the game.
She assisted on Valley’s only goal in a 3-1 loss to Region 2 champion, D-10 semifinalist and perennial girls soccer power Warren.
Clements scored both of Valley’s goals in a 3-2 loss to Class AAA playoff team Titusville.
At the start of the season, she had a four-game span where she scored six goals and had three assists.
Clements said her highlight this season was scoring twice in Valley’s 2-1 win over Meadville.
This is the second straight season Clements led the team in scoring, Kebort said. As a freshman she had 11 goals.
“She did a lot of the same stuff she did last year,” Kebort said. “(This year) she had a little more confidence. She knew what she wanted to do and what to expect on defense.”
Kebort hopes he knows what to expect from Clements in the coming years.
“We are hoping in the next two years she will develop a good long shot to get even more scoring,” Kebort said.
Clements said her goals for next year are to score more goals than this year and lead Valley to the playoffs.
“The playoffs would be huge,” she said. “The girls team has never been to the playoffs.”

Dominick DiRienzo can be reached at 724-6370, ext. 274 or by e-mail at ddirienzo@meadvilletribune.com.