11 seniors led Rockets to third straight SBC title

How does the old cliché go? “Defense wins championships,” right? That is Oak Harbor coach Renee Williamson’s philosophy.

This year, Oak Harbor won its third straight Sandusky Bay Conference championship and 13th title in 14 years including 12 outright and one tie. Huron, which won the title four years ago, is the only SBC team to interrupt the Rockets’ championship streak.

The Rockets outscored opponents 95-40 and had five shutouts.

“We have 11 seniors this year and seven are starters, and it’s my whole defense and my keeper — there are five of them right there. That’s why most of our games have been relatively low scoring and the ones where they scored more than one goal our starting defense has been injured or out,” Williamson said.

“Two of the four defenders have played together all four years and the other two have played together for three of four of the years. When you put those girls together for that long, they kind of know where the other one is going to be. We really focus a lot on defense because defense can win games for you. I mean, if you can score goals but you can’t stop them, it doesn’t matter. I’ve always been kind of defensively minded.”

The Rockets had a rough start, opening at 2-1-2, including a 3-2 loss to Ottawa County rival Genoa.

“We were set back with injuries early in the year, losing one of our starting defenders for the year early, then another defender for about three weeks.  One of our starting midfielders was also sidelined due to injury for three games,” Williamson said.

Oak Harbor finished 14-4-1 and the Rockets were unbeaten in the Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division. They secured the title when they defeated Port Clinton for the second time, 6-2.

Of course, the biggest hiccup was Eastwood, the No. 2 ranked team in Division III, which routed the Rockets 9-0 on the Eagles’ pitch. 

“Eastwood was phenomenal last year and the year before, too, so it definitely was a huge test,” Williamson said.

That “test” must have helped the Rockets find themselves because it was in the next to last  game of the season. The Rockets finished the regular season with a 5-0 win over SBC foe Clyde, then went on a historic tournament run, reaching the Division II regional tournament.

That included a 12-0 spanking over Tiffin Columbian and then a 5-0 win over Central Catholic, a team Oak Harbor tied with, 3-3, 10 days before the loss to Eastwood. 

In the win over the Irish, senior Hannah Schulte started the Rockets scoring 3:07 into the first half off of a pass from senior Remi Gregory. Junior Lily DeTray scored the remaining goals for the Rockets.  DeTray’s second goal came with 8:16 remaining in the half and her third was with 40 seconds remaining.

In the second half, DeTray scored with 26:14 remaining in the half and again with 7:40 remaining in the game. Senior goalkeeper Ripley St. Clair had 20 saves and had two penalty kick attempts against her, but one was stopped and the other went over the net.

The Rockets defeated a good Wauseon team, 2-1, to win a district championship and lost to Rocky River, 6-0, in the regional.

Nine players scored and 14 different contributed assists. Schulte led the team with 78 points on 36 goals and six assists, Detray had 20 goals and seven assists, Gregory contributed 20 goals and four assists, sophomore Hollie Robinson had seven goals and six assists, and junior Adrienne Schiets had three goals and five assists. St. Clair finished with 127 saves in goal.