The entire Metro Athletic Conference will have to wait at least another year to dethrone the Streetsboro Rockets girls’ soccer team as the reigning tournament champions. Streetsboro repeated as MAC tournament champions when they stunned conference foe Cloverleaf 2-0 last Thursday evening at Kent State University’s Dix Stadium.
“I think it just shows the resilience of our team because this has been one of the worst health years that we have had since I have been at Streetsboro with so many different key players being banged up,” said Coach Ryan Willard.
Entering the championship, Cloverleaf had already secured a share of the MAC banner after recording a perfect league record, including defeating the Rockets 5-1 in their final MAC match of the season on Sept. 24, but with the Rockets (13-3-1, 8-1-0) having once again won the tournament championship, the Colts will be forced to share the league title with Streetsboro.
It marks the fifth time in the last six years that the Rockets have finished the regular season with at least a share of the league banner, including their final few years in the Portage Trail Conference before they joined the MAC.
“We have had an upturn when it was still the PTC but they were league championships with the same team, so we are starting to see our rise,” noted the 17th-year coach.
On Thursday, the Rockets were dealt a significant blow when junior defender Zoie Dunn was sidelined with an injury. Dunn’s absence forced the Rockets to change their defensive alignment, including moving junior defender Addison Mrakovich up to central defender.
“To not have Zoie and find out shortly before the game and I am going around telling new players that you are going to play new positions so for those girls to step up and take on what they needed to do was phenomenal,” Willard said.
Despite the loss of one of their top defenders, the Rockets’ defense was strong from the start of the match. Willard said that the Colts dominated possession early, which was something Streetsboro anticipated before the match. He added that the Rockets’ best chances to score goals would come on counters.
The strategy to strike quickly paid off when sophomore midfielder Olivia Willard scored off an assist from sophomore midfielder Sara Koyan in the 17th minute of regulation, pushing the Rockets ahead 1-0.
Following Olivia’s go-ahead goal, the Rockets continued shutting out Cloverleaf, aided by some stellar defensive work in the net by freshman Morgan Novak.
Willard said that Novak was seeking redemption from her previous performance against the Colts, when she allowed a season-high four goals.
“Morgan was phenomenal,” Willard said. “That was probably her best game and I know she was super nervous going into it and I think she wanted another opportunity because she wants to compete and show that she is one of the best keepers in our league.”
Although the Colts outshot Streetsboro by 6-1 on shots on goal, Willard said that the Rockets forced Cloverleaf into some tough angles, with most of their shots having a high degree of difficulty.
As good as Streetsboro’s defense had been in the first half, Willard acknowledged that he believed the Rockets needed at least one more goal to seize control.
So far in the match, leading scorer and senior midfielder Lydia Schofield had been quiet because the Rockets decided to have her play deeper at midfield, making her more of a distributor than scoring threat to counter Cloverleaf’s alignment.
In spite of Schofield not having as active as a role on offense, Willard said that Streetsboro had other scorers with Olivia, Koyan and sophomore midfielder Olivia Knepper each having tallied more than nine goals this season.
Olivia Willard continued igniting the Rockets’ offense when she scored her second goal of the match off an assist from Schofield inside the 52nd minute of play, extending the Rockets’ advantage to 2-0.
Streetsboro’s defense preserved the two-goal lead for the rest of the match, leading the Rockets to their second straight MAC tournament championship and marking a dominant defensive run through the tournament, having not surrendered a goal in any of their three matches.
“Our defense was on a historic pace last year,” Willard said. “We returned three of our four starting defenders from last year and I think it took us awhile to gel this year, but you can see it is starting to come together now at this time of year.”
With another tournament title in hand, the Rockets have now set themselves up as the team to beat for the next few years.
