Before even entering high school, Crestwood senior Elijah Jurisch said he knew that he wanted to play soccer in the college ranks, following in his father’s footsteps. Crestwood’s new school leader in most goals scored in a single season has made his dreams a reality when he will continue playing at Geneva College.
“From the beginning with Geneva, they were like ‘If you want to come here then you can come here,’ and then they saw me play a few more times and realized I could be a good fit for them. I thought ‘Wow this place has something special,’” Jurisch told The Weekly Villager on March 22.
Jurisch finishes his varsity career playing in 70 matches, been responsible for 228 points, scoring 89 goals and dishing out 50 assists. He leaves behind a legacy by recording the most goals scored in a season with 38, surpassing the record previously set by his teammate Jayden Julian, He also set a record for most assists in a season with 24, surpassing the previous record that was also set by a former teammate, Drew Ferrari, tied Julian for most goals scored in a match with seven, and becomes the new school leader in most points scored.
Jurisch said that he had extensive interest from several Division III schools, but he wanted to attend a college that was close to home. He added that when he attended a soccer camp last summer there were at least 13 colleges scouting players and that is when Geneva took a real interest in him.
He credited Geneva for aggressively courting him, saying that the college was relentless in its pursuit.
Although Jurisch’s high school soccer career is over, he is preparing to play at the next level by continuing to play with his travel soccer club and will advance to the U-23 squad this summer.
“That will really prepare for me for the level I have to play at and also keep me fit to be able to compete at the highest level,” he said.
According to the Geneva College commit, his love of soccer stemmed from his father, who also played collegiate soccer at Geneva College. He said that his father introduced him to the sport, but he came to love soccer on his own.
Jurisch caps off a varsity career that almost ended before it started because the Red Devils boys’ program was in danger of being cancelled in his sophomore season because it did not have enough players to field a varsity team.
“We all came together as a team and said no matter what, whether we play down a man in a game, we are playing as a varsity team so there was nothing that could take away that varsity season,” he noted.
In Jurisch’s freshman season, he formed a talented trio with Julian and Ferrari and although Ferrari graduated that year, he still played one more season with Julian,
“Jayden at the time had such a big impact on my career,” Jurisch said. “He taught me honestly so much about the game when I was so young coming into the game as a freshman and sophomore, he was a mentor for me.”
After Julian graduated in 2023, Jurisch became the team’s focal point on offense. He acknowledged it was an adjustment after having the benefit of playing behind Julian and Ferrari but he embraced his new role as the Red Devils’ leading scoring option.
Over the last two years, Jurisch thrived and capped off his varsity career by breaking Julian’s record in his final varsity home match in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division V sectional championship against Chippewa on Oct. 19.
“It is almost a dream come true,” he added. “Honestly, I didn’t really care where it was but honestly that it was at home, that is probably the coolest thing for me. My last game at home ever and I broke some records there so that is pretty cool.”His senior year was made even more special as the Red Devils advanced to the district championship for the first time in school history.
“It was a very cool season and a season that I was hoping we could have but there were points where I was like maybe this hope is too much, maybe your team can’t reach this level, but we kept persevering and we did reach the level that we wanted to reach,” he said.
Although Jurisch has only a few months remaining in Mantua, he will be returning home frequently as Geneva will be a conference rival with Hiram College when Hiram joins the Presidents’ Athletic Conference in all sports next year.
