EDWARDSBURG  — The Cassopolis girls soccer team didn’t win the Lakeland Conference title.

But the Rangers did earn bragging rights over rival and outright conference champion Edwardsburg.

Cassopolis accomplished that feat on Tuesday after blanking the Eddies, 3-0.

“It was a good win,” said Cassopolis coach Oli Olafsson, whose team tied Edwardsburg, 0-0, earlier in the season. “(Edwardsburg) has been the big team in our conference and we wanted to get over the hump and beat them. We tied them twice in a row (1-1 in the second match last year) and it was nice to go to their field and win convincingly. I thought we outplayed them in most facets of the game.”

In stunning fashion, the Rangers scored their three goals in a little over two minutes in the first half. The first goal came from Jessica Waldschmidt right in front of the goal with 14:34 left in the first half. Several players fought for possession of the ball before the goal was scored. After the score, there was a delay for several minutes as an official talked to both coaches.

“The ball bounced around in there and it was hard to see,” Olafsson said. “The ref came over and explained it and he said that the ball bounced off of one of their players and our player wasn’t in an offside position and she was able to put it in.”

Waldschmidt also set up the Rangers second goal as her free kick from the right side was passed to Meagan Ruff, who placed the ball in the net to give Cassopolis a 2-0 lead with 13:41 left in the first half.

Ruff scored again from 10 yards to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead with 12:09 remaining in the first half.

“If feels good knowing we won as a team,” said Ruff. “We came here and did the things that we worked on in practices.”

Cassopolis, which improved to 14-5-2 overall and 9-1-2 in the conference, outshot Edwardsburg, 14-13.

Eddies coach Brett Harring was asked if the Rangers first goal had a negative affect on his team.

“I think you just saw a change in body language,” said Harring, whose team fell to 11-5-1 overall and 10-1-1 in the league. “I thought we played pretty well in the first 10 minutes and we had more than enough opportunities to put the ball in the net. It was about effort on (that first goal). They had four girls that wanted it a lot more in the box.”

In the second half, the Rangers tightened up their defense even more and outshot the Eddies, 7-5. Cassopolis goalie Moroz totaled five saves in picking up the shutout.

“Our defense was stifling,” Olafsson said. “I don’t think they had a lot of good chances.

“On offense, we wore them down. We earned the win today.”

During the second half, a Cassopolis defender stopped a shot from five yards from Jennifer Sporleder with 31:00 left in the match. From the same distance, Edwardsburg’s Rachel Boyles had a shot go high of the goal. The shot came off a free kick from 40 yards from Ally McIntee with 21:25 left in the match.

“In the second half, I felt like we pressured a lot better defensively,” Harring said. “We were definitely down on their end a little bit more. Still, it was about effort and they sat and did a good job of sitting on the 3-0 lead. They played very well to get that 3-0 lead.”

Edwardsburg…0

Cassopolis…3

Halftime score

Cassopolis 3, Edwardsburg 0

First half

C – Jessica Waldschmidt 14:34

C – Meagan Ruff (Waldschmidt) 13:41

C – Ruff 12:09

Shots on goal

Cassopolis 14, Edwardsburg 13

Saves

Molly Moroz (C) 5, Sophie Devenney (E) 5

Corner kicks

Cassopolis 7, Edwardsburg 4

Records

Cassopolis 14-5-2, 9-1-2 Lakeland; Edwardsburg 11-5-1, 10-1-1 Lakeland