What the Seton Saints lacked in championship experience, they made up for with tenacity and offensive talent.
Sophomore Lexi O’Shea’s goal with 1:08 to play in regulation lifted the Saints to a 4-3 win over Mount Notre Dame Saturday afternoon in an OHSAA Division I girls soccer regional final at Lakota East. Seton, 18-3-1 overall, won its first regional title and will play either Dublin Jerome or Olentangy Orange Tuesday in the state semifinals. Those teams met later Saturday.
MND, the 2021 state champion, finishes 14-3-3.
“These girls have been working hard all year,” Seton head coach John Volker said. “It’s the best team I have ever coached as far as being a team. Everybody is in it for one goal, and that is a state championship. These girls are absolutely phenomenal. They pick up after each other. Everything is about the team.”
O’Shea notched her 13th goal of the season by firing a long shot on target with time winding down, just moments after MND keeper Allie Lammers made a diving save on a header from close range by freshman Olivia Hausfeld.
“I was pretty far out but I had enough space to shoot it,” O’Shea said. “It’s very exciting. I was super excited to get the winning goal.”
MND had beaten the Saints 5-0 on Sept. 28 after they drew 1-1 16 days earlier. The Saints trailed by one goal twice in the regional final, 1-0 and 3-2, but they knew they could rally.
“They did beat us once so we knew it was going to be a battle,” said senior Shannon Ott. “Since we had played them twice before, we knew their strategies. We came in with background knowledge and knew what we had to do.”
O’Hara and Ott came into the game as one of five Saints with nine goals or more, helping the Saints average nearly four goals per contest.
The teams scored less than 10 seconds apart in the 19th minute. MND junior Avery May opened the scoring by getting the ball for a one-on-one opportunity against Seton keeper Riley Tarvin and beating her with patience and good footwork for her eighth goal of 2022.
Ott scored her 10th of the season for Seton on a long shot less than 10 seconds later.
“We were against the wind when I shot it, so I really didn’t expect it to find the upper 90 but it got in,” Ott said. “It was great.”
Seton took the lead three minutes later when Hausfeld took a crossing pass in front of the goal and scored from close range. Seton led at halftime, 2-1, and had the wind advantage, as high winds swirled towards the MND net for most of the second half.
Against the wind, MND scored twice to take the lead. With 26 minutes left, Allison Burkey converted a penalty kick for her second goal of the season. Three minutes later, Emma Hagarty scored her first of the year by collecting a pass behind the defense on a well-timed through ball and, similar to May’s goal, patiently worked to get an open shot past the keeper.
With 15 minutes left, Seton got a corner kick. Junior Millie Cluxton had trouble keeping the ball from moving before kick as the wind kept blowing it away. Once she succeeded, she hit a low line drive to the far post. The first shot ricocheted to Hausfeld, who buried it from close range. Hausfeld, a freshman, entered the game with one goal for the year.
Being down a goal in the second half was no obstacle for the Saints.
“I have five of the best offensive players in the city. Any one of them can score, any one of them can assist. They work for each other.,” coach Volker said. “We chose the wind in the second half, and with the talent that we have here, I knew we were going to get two goals. Nothing was going to stop these girls.”
The Cougars played without standout senior Peyton Kohls, a Xavier commit and one of the top players in the state who fueled last season’s title run. She missed the game after tearing an ACL in last weekend’s district final. Seton players and coaches went to greet her and hug her after the game.
Moeller 3, Springboro 1
The Crusaders punched their ticket to the Division I state semifinals with the 3-1 win over the Panthers.
Moeller, 16-1-4 overall, will play New Albany in the state semifinals at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Springfield High School. Springboro finishes 14-3-4.
Moeller is in the state semis for the second time, the first since 2018.
“It was a great game,” Moeller senior Jonah Arszman said. “We played really well and got on it from the start. It’s just really exciting. Our team is really good so I like our chances.”
The Crusaders played the first half with the same strong wind at their backs that Seton enjoyed in the second half in the day’s first game at Lakota East. For long stretches of the first half, any Springboro ball kicked high in the air nearly stopped in midair and came straight down.
Moeller junior Brevin Shinkle didn’t need any wind to open the scoring for Moeller as he scored his fifth goal of the season in the eighth minute of play. Shinkle fired from the right side of the goal box at a short angle into the far post.
With 11 minutes to go in the half, Shinkle had the ball in the same area of the field and crossed a pass to Arszman, who knocked in a header from close range for his 10th goal of the season.
Springboro got one back in the second half from Noah Deakyne after a tense scramble for the ball that the Crusaders struggled to clear with multiple players from both teams in front of the net.
Arszman increased the lead back to two with 20 minutes left in the second half when Ryan Gramza sent a low pass about 30 yards up the field to Arszman, who stuck out a foot and volleyed it past the Panthers keeper to make it 3-1.
“The first one, Brevin did a great job,” Arszman said. “He got it down the line and cut it across. Second one was a great ball from Ryan Gramza. He put it over the top and I tapped it in. Two great assists.”
After that, it was up to Moeller’s impenetrable defense, which has now allowed only 12 goals all season. Half of them, six, came in consecutive games in the first week of October against Columbus St. Charles (3-3 draw) and La Salle (3-2 loss).
Moeller was missing two starters in the back, juniors Maddox Miller and Sterling Segal. In their place were junior Eric Warncke and sophomore Paxton Hafner. Miller is a first-team honoree in the Greater Catholic League-South.
Moeller now enters the Final Four having conceded only three times in its last nine games.
“It shows how in tune our team is right now to the end goal of making sure defense wins championships,” head coach Mike Welker said. “I’m really proud of them right now. These guys have bought into what we’re trying to do, which is defend, defend, defend, then find some goals during the game. It’s a really special group and we’re really excited.”
Waynesville 3, Summit Country Day 0
Led by junior Samantha Erbach, unquestionably the state’s top two-sport performer for the day, the 2021 Division III girls soccer state champions continued a dominant run to another state title in a higher class.
The Spartans scored twice in the second half and pulled ahead of the Silver Knights. Waynesville improves to a perfect 21-0 and will play Marietta in the state semis at 7 p.m. Tuesday night at Hamilton Intermediate School, 765 Rathmell Road, Columbus, 43207-5072. SCD finishes 18-4.
“I’m so excited to be able to do it again,” Erbach said. “Last year was the best experience ever, and to do it again with a slightly different team is awesome.”
Waynesville moved up to Division II this season but has not been intimidated in the least.
“They show up every single game,” head coach Kelley Bricker said. “It doesn’t bother them that we moved up to a different division. They just settle in and see it as soccer. I’m truly proud and impressed at how they show up every single game and just leave it all out there on the field.”
Said Erbach: “This year, we had more pressure on us because we won state last year. But we’ve been able to beat all these good teams, and how much we’re beating them by - 5-1, 3-0 - it’s crazy. It’s definitely harder because all the teams are really good. Last year, we played a couple of teams in the tournament that weren’t as good, but this year every team is good. Everybody is high-level soccer.”
The SCD Silver Knights qualified. Both teams played fast-paced soccer in the first half with plenty of transition opportunities on each side. Waynesville converted first after junior Brooke Woody stole the ball near the Summit goal box. Dribbling up the middle, she passed to Allie Freese on the right side, and Freese found an open spot in the far post.
Later in the half, Erbach scored on a penalty kick, and the Spartans led 2-0 at the half.
Erbach scored from long range with 25 minutes left in the game and enters the state semifinals with 42 goals on the season.
Erbach ran a few miles at Beavercreek after running 3.1 miles in suburban Columbus earlier in the day.
Erbach finished second in the Division II state cross-country championship after finishing as regional runner-up last week.
Four other soccer players also ran in the state meet: Kendal Erbach, Kyla Harvey, Zedie Click and Emme Greely. They helped the Spartans finish eighth in the team standings.
The cross-country meet ended in the early afternoon. The runners had plenty of time to return to the high school, rest, eat and join their soccer teammates on the bus to Beavercreek and play key roles in the lineup.
“It’s phenomenal work ethic,” Bricker said. “To go all season where you’re practicing four hours a day and running on Saturdays. This whole postseason, they’ve been doubling up, competing at cross-country and coming here and competing in soccer. That’s true grit right there, refusing to feel tired at all.”
Erbach admitted she was tired but pulled through it.
“It’s been crazy,” she said. “This morning at state, my goal was to come in second. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do that but I was able to do that. I was just hoping to end the day on a good note, win this game and move on to state for soccer.”
While Erbach scores a bunch of goals, Waynesville has had solid team play in this unblemished season.
“It was a whole team effort, working the ball well,” Bricker said. “Defense has been strong. We had some great saves from Gracyn Armstrong tonight. Some nice plays through the midfield from (Caroline) Stupp and Erbach and Brooke Woody, Allie Freese on the outside. Kyla did a nice job and B-Dub (Bayley Williams) stepped in there. A solid defensive effort as well. Emme Greely in the middle, center defender, she plays solid position tonight, picking up runners. Kendal Erbach on the back side and playing in that passing lane the whole first half. Kyla did a nice job of stepping up on the offensive end making runs and on the defensive end.”
Wyoming 6, Gahanna Columbus Academy 0
The reigning Division II boys soccer state champion Cowboys continued their run with a dominant win over the Vikings from the eastern suburbs of Columbus, who finished 16-7.
Wyoming, 17-2-3 overall, will play Bexley in the state semifinals at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Bellbrook High School.
Louie Trenkamp scored the only goal the Cowboys would need in the first half, collecting the rebound off a shot by Noah Medeyinlo. The senior scored his seventh goal of the season and Medeyinlo picked up his team-high 12th assist. Wyoming led 1-0 at the break.
Kye Westerman scored two goals in a four-minute span to put Wyoming up, 3-0. The junior ended the game with five for the year.
Before those markers, Wyoming keeper Noah Popovitz, a senior, had made several tough games with the game in the balance.
Senior Gus Steiner scored to make it 4-0 with 16 minutes to go, his fourth of the season and Aaron Fershtman scored twice in the final minutes for his fifth and sixth goals.
Popovitz posted the shutout, his 13th of the year. Wyoming has allowed only 12 goals this season.
Cincinnati Country Day 1, Alter 0
Cincinnati Country Day girls soccer team only needed one well-placed corner kick against Kettering Alter Saturday, Nov. 5, at Monroe High School to advance to the state Division III Final Four game.
With 7:59 left in a 0-0 game, Piper Farris placed a corner kick near the head of Megan Zimmerman, who sent it past the Alter keeper to seal the 1-0 win.
The girls will play Lynchburg-Clay at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, at Loveland High School for the chance to make the Division III girls final game at 4 p.m. next Friday, Nov. 11, at Lower.com Field.
Source link
