New Albany falls short in boys soccer state final
New Albany fell behind 2-0 less than eight minutes into the game and couldn't overcome the deficit in falling 4-1 to Cleveland St. Ignatius in the Division I boys soccer state championship game Saturday at Mapfre Stadium.
“After that (start) we started competing more and got after it a little bit,” Eagles coach Johnny Ulry told Thisweek Newspapers. “Second half, we came out ready to go. The emotion of the game was gone at that point. We knew what they were throwing at us and we got after it. We started to rattle them a little bit and got the better of the play, but then we got a little tired and they got a breakthrough.”
Nolan Spicer and Marko Rimac scored in the first 7 minutes, 10 seconds to set the tone for the Wildcats (21-0), who won their second consecutive championship and 10th overall .
The Eagles (18-4-1) were making their first state final appearance and second state tournament appearance. The other was in 2001, when they were in Division III.
New Albany, which trailed 1-0 at halftime in each of its previous two tournament games only to win 2-1, pulled within 2-1 with 38:05 to play when Henri Heyes headed in a corner kick from Jakob Bering.
The Wildcats pulled away with goals in the final 20:30 from Spicer and Luciano Pechota.
Eagles goalie Gage Weiner made four saves.
Division IV football
Mentor Lake Catholic made a goal line stand late in the fourth quarter and hung on to defeat Bloom-carroll 17-10 in a Division IV state semifinal Saturday at Woody Hayes Quaker Stadium in New Philadelphia.
On fourth-and-1 at the Cougars , Bulldogs all-district running back Hobie Scarberry was stopped for no gain with 4:14 remaining. It was the 15th play on a drive that are up much of the fourth quarter.
Lake Catholic (8-2) made two first downs and ran out the clock to earn its first trip to the state championship game since winning its third title in 2001. The Cougars will face Van Wert (10-1), which beat Cincinnati Wyoming 28-20 in the other semifinal. The defeat ended the deepest playoff run in history for Bloom-carroll (9-1).