Bay turned slow start into magical year

Rockets were 1-4, then they refused to lose any more matches

Bay doesn’t like to lose.

Just ask coach Bobby Dougherty.

“I never want to lose to Revere,” Dougherty said. “Never want to lose to Westlake. Ever. Never want to lose to River. Ever. Or DeSales. Ever.”

The significance of those teams mentioned?

Those are the teams the Rockets lost to en route to a 1-4-1 start to the season.

But, as always seems to be the case, the Rockets had the last laugh.

On Nov. 8 at Serpentini Field at Pat Catan Stadium in Strongsville, Bay topped Aurora, 2-1, to advance to the program’s seventh state final game.

How did the Rockets turn it around? It’s simple. They didn’t lose. Following a 2-1 loss to Revere on Sept. 9, Bay has rattled off 16 straight victories to bring a 17-4-1 record into the state final against Columbus St. Francis DeSales.

“From that River game, that 5-0 game, we decided this was never going to happen again,” Dougherty said. “That kind of come-to-Jesus moment that we talked

about, we went home and we licked out wounds and we felt bad. But then we said we had 24 hours to feel as miserable as we wanted. And the rest of the season has been about coming back.”

But the Rockets haven’t simply come back.

They’ve come back with a vengeance.

Through the first six games the Rockets were outscored, 14-5. Since? A 55-9 Bay advantage, which includes eight clean sheets.

“You know, everyone doubted us,” senior Noah Beck said. “To be playing for a state title now, it’s amazing. I honestly wasn’t expecting it. We had to turn the season around and do it fast. But we did it.”

Beck wasn’t the only player who was happy to prove the doubters wrong.

“We just kept our confidence,” senior captain Sam Nortz said. “We knew we were better than our record showed at the start of the season. We just focused ... and we’ve proved everybody wrong.”

But what did the Rockets focus on?

A simple mantra.

“Let’s make sure we practice tomorrow.”

Now, win or lose, the Rockets have two practices remaining: one on Thursday and one Friday.

“Oh, it’s great,” senior Cade Gergye said. “Having two more practices — the most amount of practices we could have — it’s awesome.”

Then, Bay gets to be one of the last two Division II boys teams playing in Ohio.

RANDY MEYERS — THE MORNING JOURNAL Bay’s Nolan Sooy and Aurora’s Tevor Lazor race toward a loose ball during the first half.

RANDY MEYERS — THE MORNING JOURNAL Aurora’s Cade Huffman goes up in between Ben Humphrey and Jack Graham, right, of Bay to deflect the ball.