Two soccer teams from diocesan high schools had contrasting results in state championship games at Historic Crew Stadium.
The Columbus Bishop Watterson girls defeated North Royalton 2-1 on penalty kicks in the girls Division II final on Saturday, Nov. 9, and the Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School boys suffered a heartbreaking 1-0 double-overtime defeat the following day against Cleveland St. Ignatius in Division I.
After regulation play and two 15-minute overtimes ended with the score tied 1-1 between Watterson and North Royalton, the Eagles outscored the Bears 3-0 on penalty kicks by Sasha Smith, Emma Miller and Megan Goehring. Watterson goalkeeper Suzie Roginski stopped both North Royalton penalty kick attempts. She and the Bears’ Leah Prezenkowski each made five saves.
Watterson took a 1-0 lead on freshman Sophie Scott’s goal with 25:27 remaining in the first half. North Royalton’s Sophia Antonio tied the score with 6:33 to play.
The Eagles (20-2) won their first state championship after losing in semifinals in 2018 and 1998. Watterson outshot North Royalton (13-6-4) 14-9 and had an 11-5 advantage in corner kicks.
Watterson coach Scott Dempsey said it was a memorable game no matter the outcome.
“Both teams were going for their first championship and showed great effort,” he said. “This was the kind of game you want in a state championship, the kind of pitched battle we played throughout the district and regional rounds. We felt comfortable controlling the pace and style of the game but couldn’t get good chances.
“The coaching staff and I had a feeling from the start of practice that this could be a special group and you could see the players start to sense it about midway through the season, then it became evident to lots of people. The farther we went, the more cohesive we became.
“Most of the credit goes to a tremendous group of leaders whose role is going to be one of the most difficult things to emulate going forward. Our captains were senior sisters Megan and Kat Goehring, senior Megan Terveer and junior Emma Miller. Bailey Kerins was our other senior starter and senior Gwen Dixon was important coming off the bench.
“This team dug deeper than a lot of people maybe thought they could. They proved we had the will to win.”
This was Dempsey’s eighth year at St. Charles and 33rd year as a coach, with his other stops being at Columbus Bishop Hartley, Bexley and Hilliard when it had a single high school. His teams have been state semifinalists 11 times and won championships at Bexley in 1999 and 2009.
The St. Charles-St. Ignatius game came as close as possible to going to penalty kicks, ending with one second to go in the second overtime when the Wildcats’ Bryce Ince-Lovelace fired a shot into the upper corner of the net, giving St. Ignatius (15-4-2) its sixth consecutive state championship and 14th overall.
St. Charles (13-4-4) missed a chance to win its first state title since 1985 and third overall. The Cardinals, who received permission to compete in Division I this year after originally being assigned to Division II as part of the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s tournament realignment, were in their first championship game since 2016. They lost in the semifinals last year.
Goalkeeper Aiden Rice kept St. Charles in the game as the Cardinals were outshot 28-12. They also lost to St. Ignatius 4-2 on Sept. 7.
“No question this was a tough loss,” St. Charles coach Chris Vonau said a few days after the game. “The emotion involved with coming so close, working as hard as we did and falling just short still comes in waves. It brings a mental fog and makes you think of what-ifs every now and then.
“But there were so many positives to the season. We had an interesting path to the championship game because we started the postseason as only the fifth-ranked team in the district, so we did pretty well and proved we deserved recognition as an elite team.
“This was a team that paid great attention to detail when it came to game planning and proved to be resilient, concentrating on its goals and accomplishing them except for the last one. It was an amazing ride.”
Vonau, in his ninth year as head coach and 17th in the St. Charles program, said “It’s hard to single one player out as a standout in this group because it’s such a team sport.
“All of our seniors — Ivan Canas, Connor Evans, Sebastian Isbell, Austin Perdue, Ransom Perkins, Aidan Rice, Ian Rotruck, Al Sauer, Zeke Shalawylo, and Jackson Soder – had an impact. Ryan Sullivan and Thomas Thornton are juniors who will be playing a big role next year, and so will (sophomores) AJ Boiarsky and Mickey Hulme.”