The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Kirtland state semifinal rematch is on tap
Chris Lillstrung gets you ready for Kirtland’s Division III girls soccer state semifinal tonight at Avon, as the Hornets get a Round 2 with Liberty-Benton eyeing their third state final berth since 2017.
What: Division III state semifinal
When: 7, Nov. 10
Where: Joe Firment Stadium (behind Avon Early Learning Center), 3075 Stoney Ridge Road, Avon
Records: Kirtland 17-1-3, Liberty-Benton 17-2-2
Road to state: Kirtland — def. Cornerstone Christian, 9-0, def. Elyria Catholic, 5-0, def. Fairless, 7-1, def. Doylestown Chippewa, 3-0, def. South Range, 6-1; Liberty-Benton — def. Upper Sandusky, 6-0, def. Mount Blanchard Riverdale, 6-0, def. Bluffton, 8-1, def. Kalida, 3-1, def. Pemberville Eastwood, 2-0
What’s next: The winner advances to the state final at 1 p.m. Nov. 13 at MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus against Columbus Academy or Cincinnati Country Day.
What to look for: As is perennially the case in girls Division III, Kirtland is a familiar sight in the final four — but far from the only one.
For the second year in a row, in a clash of respected and powerhouse sides, the Hornets encounter Liberty-Benton in a state semifinal.
A year ago at Clyde, the Eagles prevailed, 2-1.
Both sides look objectively different as opposed to that meeting last fall. Kirtland graduated longtime and invaluable program staples Maya Zovko and Lidia Rodin. Zovko’s unselfishness as a playmaker and perch as one of the most important players in Hornets’ lore, along with Rodin’s versatility to fare well anywhere on the pitch from striker to midfield to the back, meant the Hornets naturally had to adapt this fall. The example they left, and arguably the unfolding legacy of that example, is how the midfield play has transitioned. Aria Evans-Roskos (13 goals, 19 assists in 2020) is the tone setter to be sure, with her
complete game as a facilitator, ballwinner and set-piece moxie. Leah LaVerde (15-7), as she has throughout her career, continues to be dangerous on the left flank.
But just how much Giuliana Vladic (0-18) and Maria Bevanda (1-12) have developed as center mids, along with Reilly Greenlee (5-7) as an option wide right, affords Kirtland the ability to be a multi-pronged nightmare to defend.
And in the understatement of the year, it also helps to have one of Ohio’s most prolific strikers in Erika Zschuppe (50-11), firmly cemented already as a junior as one of the best and most technically gifted players in NewsHerald coverage area history. Whether it’s Mia Rini (9-7) or any one of the aforementioned mids in a tactical shift, Zschuppe has a unique way of being dangerous playing off all of them, and each combo can yield a new wrinkle.
In the defensive third, goalkeeper Corinne Aquila and center back Amber Yurick, to go with outside backs Macy McIntosh and Corinne Greenlee, are steady and assertive, with 15 goals yielded and 10 clean sheets against a daunting schedule. Arguably, Liberty-Benton is not quite as balanced in the attack as it was in 2019. But the Eagles are still dynamic with senior and returning first-team All-Ohioan Alexis Rickenbacher (30-9), junior Olivia Bodie (14-24) and senior Maya Rickle (14-13). If Liberty-Benton plays a rigid 4-4-2, as it did last year against Kirtland, the Hornets have to use LaVerde and Reilly Greenlee more as conduits, perhaps even mixing in McIntosh and Corinne Greenlee floating into the attack, and wide play more frequently in general.
Kirtland, because of personnel and circumstance, has to play differently against the Eagles this time.
The question that will decide if the Hornets’ season ends in Avon or Columbus: If LibertyBenton is essentially the same side as it was a year ago, how will Kirtland initiate that change to make this match and result different?