The loudest noises tend to pierce even the most deafening silence. Such was the case Sept. 30 as the Wickliffe girls side traveled to Kirtland to add another chapter to their lengthy, impactful series. There wasn’t a whole lot of end-product quality here, particularly through the middle of the match, either way. But the Blue Devils have a couple of aces up their sleeve. Not to mention, given their form of recent memory, they are experts at how to manage such a match impeccably. Tiana Torrence’s brace was sandwiched by a late Ava Gabriel strike, Wickliffe’s pace-and-power striker duo providing the finishing knack for a 3-0 victory on a short road trip. In getting to 9-2-2, the Blue Devils’ match management in the defensive third and midfield was top notch. Led by center back Maddie Kita and midfielder Leah Skufca, they conceded just three shots on target, one in the second 40, in registering their eighth clean sheet of the fall. Wickliffe senior center back Maddie Kita discusses her side's 3-0 win at KirtlandBlue Devils did such a nice job managing that 80, especially with shifting in the back to limit off-ball runs/quality, & she played a key role there as they notched their 8th clean sheet of 2024 pic.twitter.com/lf6SXWPkIk — Chris Lillstrung (@CLillstrungNH) October 1, 2024 “I’m very happy with the management of that game,” Wickliffe coach Steve Gribovicz said. “We talked about playing as a team this week, and you saw it between our back unit, mid unit and top unit. I think you saw a lot of team play, where we didn’t leave the gaps open that we might have had in previous games. They played team defense, got the clean sheet, which is huge. “But the word I like to use, I just used it over there, is timely. We made the timely, correct decisions to get the couple goals that we got. Then on defense, we made the timely plays and challenges when we had to in order to stop their runs on the counterattacks.” Torrence netted the opener in the ninth minute. Her first touch in off Gabriel service from the right flank set the table for a slick left-footed finish and a 1-0 advantage. Wickliffe 1-0Tiana Torrence 9th min pic.twitter.com/hQsGu7oqU1 — Chris Lillstrung (@CLillstrungNH) September 30, 2024 That scoreline stood for an hour — a quiet hour at that in the natural flow of attack. That is, until Gabriel latched onto a Skufca free kick in the 69th for her seventh goal of the season. Torrence capped her brace in the 78th off a rebound side net, getting her to seven goals in her junior campaign. “My first goal, I saw Ava have the ball, and she’s really good with back-to-backs,” Torrence said. “So when I saw her turn, I saw that gap and I just prayed that the ball went through. And I was surprised my touch was so close to me. I saw the goalie come out, so I finished. The second one, I really just kicked it, hit post and thought I was missing. I was just there enough to follow. “It took us a lot of games to finally connect as a team. So to see that we can finally connect as a team, especially against a hard opponent like Kirtland, it felt really great.” Wickliffe won its third straight in the series after Kirtland had captured the first 16 meetings all-time. For the Hornets (6-7-1), their best chance in the match came in the 51st minute. Freshman Olivia Pickens, who has shown promise in the attack, embarked on a pacey run down the left flank and put a left-footed strike on target. But Blue Devils goalkeeper Cade Virgilio was up to the task to keep it 1-0 until the late strikes from Torrence and Gabriel. “I challenged our girls to take on their backline 1v1,” Kirtland coach Josh Sladick said. “It looked like they were sagging off a little bit, giving us room to work. So Pickens heeded that challenge and got after it in the second half. I think Lexi Vosicky did a better job in the second half as well. Megan Urbanick, Isabel Mueller — same thing. So we were generating more, but then what was missing was where do we have the opportunities? Now that we’re there, now what? “That’s kind of been the whole thing throughout the season. At the beginning of the season, we were able to create opportunities and it was there. Teams picked up. Obviously, the high school game evolves throughout the season. So now, as they start to game-plan for us and we’re trying to move people around, pieces around, trying something new, where’s the space? Once we find the space, can we execute it? I think our challenge tonight was, we had the space. We didn’t know we had the space. So we’ve got to do a better job of that, especially in the postseason.” After having a nine-match unbeaten run snapped by Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin on Sept. 24, Wickliffe has notched clean sheets against Beachwood (1-0) and, now, Kirtland. The Blue Devils, who have won 97 matches since 2017, return much of the core of a 2023 side that had a heartbreaking Division III district final loss to Apple Creek Waynedale. In turn, their pursuit of a first trip to regional competition in girls soccer in school history continues. They can’t wait to make the noise that will break through that silence. “We watched film and saw what we did wrong,” Torrence said of the NDCL result. “So we just came to this game thinking of what to do better to get those wins and not to make those same mistakes against NDCL. “We are so motivated, especially after that loss last year. We’re trying to get past district finals and make it farther.”