For the first time in three years, the Keys to the Arsenal will not return to Ravenna. The Ravenna Ravens boys’ soccer team fell to Portage County and neighborhood rival Southeast 2-1 at Freedom Field last Friday evening.
“We seem to have these beginning-of-the-year classics,” said Coach Eric Hedge. “It was a great game. It plays out the same almost every year. Unfortunately for us this year, it just didn’t go our way this year. I was proud of my guys; there was never any quit.”
Since taking the head coaching job at Ravenna, Hedge has coached the Ravens (0-1-0, 0-0-0) to consecutive season-opening victories against their neighborhood foes but this time, Southeast claimed bragging rights in the annual rivalry match.
Although the neighborhood foes have not been conference rivals for the last several years, Hedge acknowledged that the rivalry still runs deep between the programs.
“I just think you have families against families in some cases, so the boys just get up for this game,” the third-year coach noted. “I just think it speaks to the excitement of soccer in this area and there can be some highly contested matches in your own backyard and the crowds on both sides were energetic.”
On Friday, the teams traded goals and were deadlocked at 1-1 in the final few minutes of regulation. The Pirates engineered the game-winning goal on a corner shot in the 74th minute of regulation, pushing them out to a 2-1 advantage.
“It was a bang-bang situation in the box and junior goalkeeper Johnny Adams couldn’t quite get his hands on the ball, and the Southeast player was standing right there to knock it in,” noted Hedge.
Hedge said that the Ravens aggressively pushed the ball into Southeast’s defensive third of the field but could not muster the equalizing goal, falling just short in their season debut.
In typical fashion, it was another closely contested duel between the Portage County rivals, as the Pirates struck first in the 30th minute in the first half on a breakaway goal as Adams came out of the box to block a shot but did not secure the ball, and the attacking Southeast player scored on the follow through.
It took the Ravens very little time to respond, as senior forward Lucas Garey scored on an unassisted goal at the 41st minute of play in the second half, evening the score at 1-1.
“Lucas took the ball and we had a rush down the left side and Southeast cleared it,” said Hedge. “Lucas is a silent leader on the team; he is not very talkative but has foot skills that rival any of the top players in the area and he decided to take it himself.”
Although the Ravens suffered defeat in the season-opener, Hedge said that it was a promising debut by a team that returns eight varsity starters from last year’s squad, including an experienced defensive line consisting of seniors Terrill Strickland and Jack Rainone.
Leading Ravenna’s offense is Garey and senior Stephen Presley, but the Ravens have blended in some underclassmen to the starting line-up, with freshmen Julian Gonzalez and Brayden Finch expected to play significant roles on the attack while freshman Logan Joslyn will be a key contributor on defense joining an experienced backline.
“Our strength is in our defense with Jack and Terrill anchoring the middle and the back and then with Oliver Lau playing either side of the wings and Logan has really stepped up from his eighth-grade year and had been playing at a varsity level,” said Hedge.
Hedge called this year’s Ravenna squad one of the deepest ones he has fielded in his short time as the Ravens’ coach, as there is no drastic drop-off from the starters to the subs as each player can come off the bench and made an impact.
He added that the Ravens plan to utilize their depth to turn things around and post their first winning season since the 2022 campaign and make a final stand in the Metro Athletic Conference before they join the Greater Portage Athletic Conference next year.
“I will try to empower them to be confident. We have taken so many thumpings over the years,” said Hedge
Following the home opener against Carrollton on Tuesday evening, the Ravens will hit the road and face Canton McKinley in Stark County on Saturday morning at 10 a.m.
