Patriot girls find balance on offense
Entering his first season as the coach of the Olentangy Liberty girls soccer team, Chris Allen knew he didn’t want the Patriots to rely solely on Jaimason Brooker.
Brooker, a junior forward who ranked No. 14 on Gannett Ohio’s preseason list of the top 21 players in the state, scored 24 goals as a sophomore in 2020.
Though he was well aware of what Brooker brings to the team, Allen wanted to implement a more multi-dimensional approach this year, both to take some of the pressure off Brooker and to ensure that Liberty wouldn’t be devastated in the event of an injury to its go-to player.
“We don’t want one of the wheels to fall off the wagon,” Allen said. “If one of the wheels falls off the wagon, it’s just done. I think we’ve done a good job in terms of our team dynamic and incorporating other players into the mix.”
That’s where sophomore forward Chloe Brecht comes in. In her first year of varsity soccer, Brecht is tied with Brooker for the team lead in goals with eight. The duo accounts for 51.6% of the Patriots’ 31 goals.
And the two forwards aren’t just scoring individual goals. They’re setting each other up to score, too.
Brooker has assisted on three of Brecht’s goals, and Brecht has the assist on five of Brooker’s. Allen says that’s serendipitous, not due to specific structures designed to have Brecht and Brooker work together, but it’s clear that the chemistry between the two forwards has propelled Liberty to its 9-1-1 record.
“We’re very similar in the style that we like,” Brooker said. “We both have more of an attacking-minded soccer style. We both want to go forward and get to the goal. I think that really helps us connect with each other.”
Brecht credits her chemistry with Brooker for her quick adjustment in her first season on varsity after being somewhat intimidated when she first made the team.
“We bonded off the field by getting closer as friends and that helped us on the field,” Brecht said. “We just are on the same page a lot of the time and then we can see those runs we’re making and play them to each other.”
The Patriots are in the home stretch of their season, with just four regularseason games left in the Occ-central before the postseason begins. A loss to Upper Arlington means Liberty doesn’t control its own destiny for the league title, but winning it remains a possibility.
And its thanks to Brecht’s emergence, as well as her chemistry with Brooker, that Brooker isn’t the sole player carrying the pressure of trying to take the Patriots to a league title. Football
Reynoldsburg quarterback Dijon Jennings threw five touchdown passes, including four in the second quarter, out of nine total completions in a 62-0 win over Newark. Jennings finished with 204 passing yards . ...
Heath sophomore quarterback Brayden Bayles completed 11 of 17 passes for 193 yards and six touchdowns in a 63-7 win over Utica . ...
Northridge running back JD Miller rushed for 335 yards on 26 carries and scored seven touchdowns, including a long of 41 yards, in a 55-7 win over Lakewood . ...
Dublin Scioto quarterback Amare Jenkins passed for 352 yards and six touchdowns in a 71-0 win over Franklin Heights. Wide receiver Lesley Andoh caught three of those touchdown passes and finished with 204 yards on six total catches . ...
Pickerington Central junior safety Sonny Styles, the No. 1 ranked safety and No. 8 overall player in the class of 2023 per 247Sports, has narrowed his list of potential colleges to five: Notre Dame, Ohio State, Clemson, Florida and Ole Miss. Friday night, Styles returned an interception 102 yards for a touchdown in a 49-6 win over Central Crossing.
Soccer
In this week’s statewide poll, Olentangy is ninth in the Division I girls poll. Granville and Bloom-carroll are third and ninth, respectively, in the Division II girls poll. Grandview Heights is fifth in the Division III girls poll . ...
In the boys poll, New Albany is No. 2 and Upper Arlington is No. 6 in Division I. Grandview Heights is third and Worthington Christian is ninth in Division III . ...
Evan French had a hat trick for Canal Winchester in a 3-2 win over Westerville Central on Tuesday and scored two goals in a 4-2 win over Grove City on Thursday to finish the week with five goals in two games . ...
Olentangy senior Danny Leeper scored three goals in the span of four minutes on Tuesday to bring his teamleading goal total to 10 on the year.
Lacrosse
Upper Arlington junior Kampbell Stone committed to Ohio State . ... New Albany junior Abby Cole committed to Louisville.
Volleyball
Less than two weeks after breaking the school record for kills in a career with 947, Big Walnut senior Caroline Speelman became the first player in school history to reach 1,000 kills Thursday night.
Baseball
Canal Winchester senior outfielder Zade Fusselman committed to Wright State.
Athlete of the Week
Pickerington Central volleyball player Emma Beretich won Athlete of the Week for Sept. 20-26. Nominations for Sept. 27-Oct. 3 are due Monday at noon. bjohnson@dispatch.com @baileyajohnson_