The Streetsboro Rockets girls’ soccer team knows what it takes to reach a district title match but have not figured out how win one yet. The Rockets’ season ended when they were overwhelmed 8-0 against Canfield in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II Northeast 1 Hubbard district final last Thursday night at Memorial Stadium.
“Canfield was the better team. There was no doubt,” said Coach Ryan Willard. “Soccer is a funny game, and you just never know what is going to happen. There are one or two chances that can go your way and maybe we would have a shot, but it did not end up being the case on Thursday night.”
Before the 2020 season, Streetsboro (15-2-4, 9-0-1) had never reached a district championship in Willard’s coaching tenure with the program. Since then, the Rockets have competed in three district title matches in the last four seasons.
Having already missed out on clinching a district banner twice, the third seeded Streetsboro’s third shot at a district championship would be against the top seeded Cardinals, who ousted the Rockets in the district semifinal last season.
It was a game between two elite defenses, with the Rockets having surrendered only 16 goals this season against a Canfield defense that had yielded just 13.
“I think what makes them so strong is that their offense is part of their defense, and they are so good in the attack. You don’t have the opportunity to get into their defense too often,” acknowledged the 16-year coach.
On Thursday, the Cardinals wasted little time mounting an early lead, going ahead 2-0 in the first eight minutes of regulation.
Senior forward Lorieona Jannone scored the first goal, followed by a goal by leading scorer and senior forward Maci Toporcer to gain an early advantage.
“I have to give Canfield a lot of credit and on both goals,” said Willard. “Their forwards were super aggressive and probably took shots that a lot of other forwards would not have taken because the windows were so small to get a shot off. They not only were able to get the shots off but placed them really well and scored,”
According to Willard, falling into a 2-0 hole gave his team plenty of urgency but struggled to advance the ball past midfield.
Willard said the Rockets dropped back their attacking players to defend against Canfield’s offense, so it was going to take Streetsboro longer to connect passes to make it past the midfield.
At one point during the first half, Canfield had only outshot the Rockets by a 4-3 margin but then dominated possession in the rest of the half, adding three more goals to take a 5-0 advantage into the half.
Despite both squads having strong defenses, the Cardinals were a very similar team to the one that ousted Streetsboro in the 2022 district semifinal, having returned all their attacking players while the Rockets started two freshmen at their attack.
“When you have continuity like that and have developed the relationships on the field, you just have a better sense as to where someone is going to be or where they are going to and so on,” Willard added. “From a coaching standpoint, when you have the same group that has been through the coaching for two or three years, there is just such a better understanding of what everybody is going to be doing.”
Canfield continued dominating in the second half, adding three more goals en route to clinching its third district championship in the last four years.
Although the Rockets’ season ended, Willard said the 2023 campaign was one of the most memorable seasons he had experienced with the program.
“We changed so much this year and had 10 freshmen out of 25 and our group was very different,” he said. “Not only that but we decided to change formation this year and there was so much that was new I did not expect us to compete at the levels we did right away, but the girls were awesome, and I could not have asked for anything more.”
Having set a school record with the most shutout victories in a season and winning the Metro Athletic Conference Championship match for the first time in school history, the Rockets are projected to return 21 of their 25 players from this season.
Having fallen short of a district banner, Willard said his team will be inspired to return next season and finish the job.
“I think they are going to be pretty motivated,” he added. “That was one of the goals we set before the year to win the district final. The more wins that piled up I thought there was a chance and we beat three of the top five seeds already in the district going into the tournament. We will take our chances when we get to that point next year.”
