Clay tournament wins keep the momentum flowing

Clay girls soccer finished 9-10-1, which most coaches would say is sub-par. For sure, it was sub-par for Clay, says coach Don “Duck” Hess.

However, when you compete in the Three Rivers Athletic Conference, finishing close to .500 is not bad, especially when there were multiple one or two goal losses to powerhouse teams.

“Yes, record wise, we certainly did not meet our standards that we have been achieving in years past.  Our first goal is to compete for the league championship,” Hess said. 

“Obviously, that didn’t happen. Another goal is always be playing our best soccer at the end of the season. Going through a very competitive schedule for most of the season definitely got us ready for a tournament run,” Hess continued. 

“I think we were able to regroup a bit towards the end by competing in some easier matches. This allowed us to physically get healthy for the tournament and more importantly it allowed us to mentally refocus.” 

Despite the sub-par regular season, it is always a goal at Clay to compete for a Division I district title, and the Eagles accomplished that, winning two games over quality opponents.

First, Clay won against St. Ursula 2-1 in overtime at the Arrows’ place in West Toledo. Sophomore forward Kaelani Chanthakham scored what Hess called “the golden goal” in overtime. This was after the Arrows and Eagles tied 1-1 during the regular season.

During the tournament draw, Hess had choices on which bracket he wanted, and with the advice of everyone, including his coaching staff and players, it was decided they wanted to be in the Arrows’ bracket.

“We hung in there with the tough season and didn’t get off to a good start. We just kept battling, just kept practicing, just trying to better,” Hess said.

“Some younger kids just kept getting better and better. We did get to the end of the season we finished with Fremont (Ross, a 7-0 Clay win) and Lima (Senior, 4-0 Clay win), who were just really bad.

“We were able to relax a little bit and almost take a break mentally more than physically and say, ‘OK, let’s go after St. Ursula again in that first tournament game’ and that’s who we wanted to go after, and we did and played them well and beat them in overtime,” Hess continued.

In the district semifinal, Clay was able to beat what Hess called “a very good Sylvania Northview team”, 2-1. This came after the Wildcats shut out the Eagles 2-0 during the regular season.

Clay goals were scored by Chanthakham and junior forward Kelsie Katschke. In the district final Clay lost to Notre Dame 2-1. After falling behind 2-0, Clay senior defender Molly Anderson scored to make it 2-1. 

“A couple of more opportunities came our way. On a set piece, Kaelani just missed tying the game up.  On that night, we just didn’t play our best soccer. But give credit to NDA,” Hess said.

Clay was only blown out once, by Medina, 5-0, which was ranked No. 1 in the Division I coaches poll early in the season. 

“Our first game was the biggest struggle against Medina. I was surprised they got knocked out, but they did,” Hess said. “After we played them, I thought they were going to win the state championship and so did everyone else, really. They were really good, but that was early in the season.”

The Eagles lost to perennial state powerhouses Beavercreek, 2-1, Anthony Wayne, 2-0, and Perrysburg, 4-1, but had wins over North Royalton, 6-1, Wapakoneta, 2-0, and Amherst Steele, 2-1. 

“Yeah, we play a tough schedule for that reason — to try and prepare us,” Hess said. “Our goal is to try and compete for a championship in the league and to try to play the best hopefully during the season — try to find as good of teams as we can find just to get better.”

Leading scorers were Katschke, Chanthakham, senior midfielder Kailyn Ciborowski, freshman defender Delaney Ciborowski and senior midfielder Delaney Coughlin.

Anderson is first team All-TRAC, Alan Miller Jewelers All-Press and all-district while Kailyn Ciborowski is first team All-TRAC, All-Press and second team all-district. Coughlin and freshman forward Gianna Cuttaia are second team All-TRAC, All-Press and honorable mention all-district, and Chanthakham, senior defender Jaylynn Lewis and junior goalkeeper Sophia Marisco are HM All-TRAC. Chanthakham and Lewis are second team All-Press and Marisco is HM.

“Sophia Marisco, the goalkeeper, just had a great year stepping in there as a first year starter,” Hess said. “Sophia stepped in and we didn’t miss a beat at the goalkeeper position. She was fantastic for being a first-year keeper.”

Hess said he had six solid seniors he will lose, but added that his underclassmen will take the experience and lessons learned into next year.

“I think we’ve learned to be ready to play against the best. We have to learn to play against the best teams we can play and for our younger kids you can’t take anything for granted,” Hess said. “Nothing is going to be easy. You just have to keep working hard, keep working together and that is what we are going to shoot for. Keep going at it.

“We’ve got a nice corps of players back. We had six solid seniors and they were a big part of the previous season where that culture was fantastic. We have the foundation in place to continue competing for league and district championships.”