What the Streetsboro Rockets boys’ soccer team may lack in roster size, they make up for in quality as evidenced by an 8-1 victory against Portage County rival Crestwood last Friday evening at Jack Lambert Stadium in Mantua.
“It is always good to get your season off on the right foot,” Rockets’ Coach Paul Krzeminski said. “Especially with the result being what it was, it is not what I expected coming into the game today. They played us tough last year and we had a lot of uncertainties this year by having some new faces at different positions.”
It marked the first time since the 2017 and 2018 seasons that the Portage County rivals had faced off in consecutive seasons. Streetsboro (1-0-0, 0-0-0) defeated the Red Devils by a 5-1 margin last year but entered this season having replaced five starters and Crestwood only graduated three seniors.
Streetsboro got off to a quick start when sophomore center Payton Krzeminski scored on a running shot from the right side of the box inside the eighth minute of play, pushing the Rockets to a 1-0 advantage.
The Rockets dominated possession for the majority of the first half by double-teaming Crestwood senior attacker Elijah Jurisch, the Red Devils’ (0-0-1, 0-0-0) leading scorer from last season, and Red Devils’ Coach Eric Sway acknowledged that his team could not overcome Streetsboro’s defensive strategy.
“We thought after last year that we had caught up to Streetsboro and this would be the showcase match to show Portage County we can compete with them even with us being in Division V and Streetsboro being in Division III but that was not to be this year,” the fourth-year coach said.
Although Crestwood may have returned its leading scorer, it lacked the distributor they needed to help set up their offense.
With the Red Devils’ offense flailing, Streetsboro continued attacking and added four straight goals to build a 5-0 lead, sparked by a one-touch shot from sophomore midfielder Nick Castriloa off an assist from Payton to go ahead 2-0 inside the 13th minute of regulation.
Junior forward Ethan Laryea scored two consecutive goals in a span of eight minutes by slotting the ball in from the top of the box inside the 18th minute of play and then collected a rebound to score another goal inside the 26th minute of regulation, pushing Streetsboro’s lead to 4-0.
Sophomore forward Logan Sadowski buried a goal after he collected the rebound off of his own blocked shot inside the 35th minute of play, pushing the Rockets to a commanding 5-0 lead.
According to Laryea, Streetsboro carried the momentum established by the Streetsboro girls in the opening match of the evening into their duel against Crestwood with a dominant first half.
“When Payton scored, that first goal really gave us a boost and were like ‘alright, let’s get another one and another one,’” he noted. “We scored as much as we could in the first half. If you score that much in the first half then you can the second half too.”
The Rockets recorded 13 shots on the goal in the first half and allowed Crestwood only two.
“They were moving the ball and were not standing still,” Sway noted. “Our players were standing still and that was the difference. They were flooding channels and running guys in space while we were standing there. They already had us beat before we started at that point.”
Streetsboro’s dominating offensive performance was a nice surprise to Coach Krzeminski, who is coaching one of the smallest rosters in his tenure with the program. The last time he can remember having a roster this small was during his first or second season.
Although Streetsboro is trying to blend experience and youth together this season, the Rockets make up for their small numbers with a wealth of offensive firepower in Payton, Laryea, Sadowski and Catriloa.
“Ethan is fantastic,” Coach Krzeminski added. “He is the lynchpin. Everything rolls through him, and we have Payton, Logan and Nick. All three of those boys, they are super competitive and play club ball at the highest of levels. We have Vince Incorvati in the back, he is another club player.”
Following a road game against MAC foe Akron Springfield on Tuesday evening and A home debut against Chagrin Falls on Thursday night, Streetsboro will return to the pitch to face off against MAC rival Norton on Aug. 27 at Norton Stadium.
Meanwhile, the Red Devils will return to action against Portage County rival Garfield at JAG Stadium in Garrettsville on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
