The Streetsboro Rockets are ready to have the Metro Athletic Conference title all to themselves. The Rockets finally solved MAC rival Field in the third annual MAC tournament, shutting out the Falcons 2-0 in the semifinal last Thursday evening at Rocket Stadium’s Quinn Field to earn their second berth to the league championship game.
“We set two goals at the beginning of the year and it is kind of the same goal,” said Coach Ryan Willard. “Number one is to win the league and number two is to advance as far as possible in the state tournament, so getting to the MAC Championship, I do not think you ask for anything more than that.”
The Rockets will take on MAC rival Cloverleaf in the MAC title game at Kent State University’s Dix Stadium on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m.
In the last two seasons, the Falcons had gotten the best of Streetsboro in the MAC tournament, having defeated the Rockets in the 2021 MAC title game and ousting them in the semifinal last season.
For more game photos visit Anton Albert Photography.
The first loss forced Streetsboro to settle for sharing the league championship with the Falcons in 2021, then losing in the semifinal match last year cost Streetsboro any chance of winning the MAC title, paving the way for Cloverleaf to win it outright.
“Being able to put a number on a banner is always awesome and it is not something we take for granted,” said the 16th-year coach. “That number is going to be there whether we share it or not but of course there is a little more value to it when you can win it by yourself. There is going to be no sharing because we tied in the regular season and so it is going to be a winner-take-all thing type this year.”
On Thursday evening, the Rockets struck quickly when senior forward Lydia Schoefield scored on a long-distance shot from the back left corner of the box inside the fourth minute of play, taking a 1-0 advantage.
Streetsboro continued its fast start when Schoefield added another goal, this time scoring on another outside shot from the top left corner of the box in the 14th minute of play.
According to Willard, he was pleased to see Streetsboro’s leading scorer be more aggressive with her opportunities.
“Lydia has been awesome for us,” he said. “She has really been awesome for us in the last few weeks and has really come on and has really been huge for us. We came out with a fire that once we got ahead I knew we were not going to give up the lead.”
Willard said the Rockets had a few more chances in the first half but could not convert. Although Streetsboro’s offense fizzled, its defense, which had already broken the previous school record of nine shutout victories in a season with ten this year, did not yield an inch against the Falcons.
“We are giving up less than a goal per game right now and that is going to be hard to hold as we go up against some really good opponents in the state tournament,” said Willard. “But they have been incredible. It is really hard for teams to break through and get shots from inside our box.”
When the Rockets’ opponents cannot get inside the box, they have to settle for outside shots which falls perfectly into Streetsboro’s defensive game plan.
Streetsboro’s dominant defense this season consists of senior goalkeeper Lainey Klein, senior defender Claire Collins, junior Carman Marcini, and sophomores Zoe Dunn and Tea Nagle.
The Rockets’ defense continued their stellar performance, holding Field to only two shots on goal in the match.
“Neither of them were super challenging but we just did a really good job of forcing them into bad situations over and over,” Willard said. “From a defensive standpoint I felt like we executed our game plan on Thursday night better than we had all season. Like I said it was because we know what they bring so we tried to take away their strengths and the girls just did a fantastic job.”
Although the Rockets’ offense remained quiet for most of the second half, its defense never lost its stride, adding to the program record of most shutout victories this season with 11 after blanking their MAC rivals.
After the Rockets compete against Cloverleaf for the league banner, they will begin postseason play as the third seed, hosting Edgewood in the Division II Northeast 1 Hubbard sectional semifinal on Saturday at 2 p.m.
