'I want to keep going': Streetsboro soccer's strong start sparks district semifinal win
STREETSBORO — A rocket doesn't roll out of the garage.
It blasts off the launch pad.
Third-seeded Streetsboro girls soccer rocketed to an early lead Monday and held on late for a 2-1 victory over No. 7 Perry to earn its third district title game berth in the last four seasons.
"It's so cheesy to say, but it's the most important thing you can do is just come out with a bang and hope that you just keep sending them in and sending them through," Rockets senior defender Claire Collins said. "We did that tonight."
Roughly a week ago, the Rockets (15-2-3) opened the postseason with a sluggish first half against No. 23 Edgewood.
Not Monday.
"Two games ago, a lot of our girls were hurt and injured and we just weren't prepared for that game, but we came in today ready to go," Streetsboro senior midfielder Sydney Carmen said. "Like this is all or nothing. Last year, we ended here [in the district semifinals] and I didn't want to stop my senior season right here. I want to keep going and go as far as we can."
Roughly five minutes in, junior Lydia Schofield and sophomore Zoie Dunn combined on a slick short corner cross that nearly led to a goal, as freshman Sara Koyan pinged her one-touch finish off the bar.
Less than a minute later, Koyan and the Rockets were back at it as she played a beautiful pass across the box to Schofield, who one-touched it home for a 1-0 lead.
And less than a minute after that, Carmen launched a top-shelf shot from roughly five yards outside the box that the leaping keeper punched off the bar with the ball caroming into the net for a 2-0 advantage.
"There was no one in front of me and I just took the shot with my left foot," Carmen said. "I'm right-footed, [so it] really surprised me and I thought it was going over, but I guess it went right in between the goalie's hand and the top of the post."
With the Rockets' early heroics and a strong finish, seniors like forward Kailyn Rue, keeper Lainey Klein, Carmen and Collins were able to end their Quinn Field careers with a win. Streetsboro's next game will occur on a neutral field — Hubbard — against top-seeded Canfield on Thursday when the Rockets chase their first district title.
"The girls that I'm with, I love them just so much and I cannot believe that we have been able to do this and everything that's come out of it," Collins said. "So I'm so sad that I'm going to leave [after this year] but, at the same time, I'm so glad it's ending like this."
Streetsboro holds lead by continuing to attack
Holding that early two-goal lead wasn't easy. Not with Pirates junior Jordan Rowan zooming around the field all night.
For 62 minutes, the Rockets kept Rowan largely at bay, led by their always-solid defense and a couple of key saves by Klein. That included the senior keeper knocking down Rowan's liner from the top of the box 11 minutes in, then knocking aside Perry freshman Aleigha Granchi's tricky follow-up shot.
"She had a fantastic night," Collins said. "Lainey is our anchor, just completely and utterly, and we would not be the defense we are without her, and tonight she was just on fire."
In the 63rd minute, the Pirates got on the scoreboard as Rowan hopped on a through ball and sent a pretty shot to the back side of the net to draw within 2-1.
The issue, per Rockets coach Ryan Willard, wasn't the goal itself. It was their inability to possess early in the second half.
After spending much of the opening 40 minutes in Perry territory as it connected passes up and down the field, Streetsboro started booting the ball far too much for Willard's liking early in the second half. To the point that the Rockets didn't have a single shot over the first 25 minutes after the break.
"I was trying to encourage the girls to just connect passes," Willard said. "Pass it to the feet instead of trying to play the long ball because we were sending it long and they were just sending it back in and we weren't getting out of our zone, and I know that we can possess better than what we were. Once we started to do that a little bit, we were able to control the game a little bit more again toward the end."
After Rowan's goal, Streetsboro snapped to it, with the ball shifting far more to Perry's side of the field. As a result, the Rockets were able to hold the Pirates to a single shot on goal after Rowan's score.
"It was hard," Collins said. "It's just hard on your body. It's hard on your mental state, but you just have to kind of pull yourself through, and I do that by just yelling. So I was just calling everything and trying to get everybody in charge because that's just how I center myself and that's how I felt that we would be able to survive those next 17 minutes without a goal."
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Streetsboro girls soccer starts strong, wins OHSAA district semifinal
