Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Oak Harbor returns 14 letterwinners and eight starters, including four seniors, from last year’s team that came within one victory of making the regional tournament.
“We have a pretty good focus,” fourth-year head coach Ryan Lacer said. “Hopefully, we’ll be playing some of our very best soccer at the end of the year, and we’ll see what the tournament brings when we get to it.”
The Rockets finished 12-3-4 overall last year, capturing a share of the Northern Buckeye Conference title with Lake. They have won a share of the crown each of the past two seasons since joining the conference.
The team graduated six seniors, highlighted by a trio of all-conference team members — including Division IV All-Ohio centerback Camdyn Fauver.
“It’s definitely hard to replace someone of (Camdyn’s) caliber back there,” Lacer said. “She did such a wonderful job for us the last three years. But we have a couple juniors that I'm looking to see step up and fill in back there for her for sure this year.”
Those two potential replacements are Delaney Johnson and Brooke Tabbert.
“Delaney has played back there since she was a freshman, so she's pretty familiar with it back there,” Lacer said. “Brooke played back there last year, too. She's been doing really well so far this summer. Between those two, I'm hoping to kind of fill that centerback spot with them.”
In addition to Fauver, also gone is Effie Schulte, a First Team All-NBC midfielder who finished third on the team in goals (7) and assists (5). Ditto for Sami Tack, a Second Team All-NBC midfielder who led the team in goals (12) and finished second in assists (6).
“We're looking to get our defense in shape, keep our defensive shape back there, find a couple people to step up and be leaders in the back, and then work on our midfield some this year, too. Our focus is on getting strong midfield play.”
The Rockets return five of their eight all-conference selections from 2024.
Claire Blausey is a junior forward who earned first team recognition following an eight-goal, seven-assist campaign, totals which were second and first on the team, respectively.
Senior defender Abby Coutcher landed on the second team, while a trio of others return after honorable mention recognition. Kaitlyn Meloche is a senior defender, Haylee Robinson is a junior goalkeeper who tallied 92 saves, and Kendall Gaines is a sophomore forward who recorded five goals and an assist as a rookie.
The return of Blausey and Gaines up top is big for the Rockets.
“We're hoping it'll help us out immensely this year,” Lacer said. “We just have to get the pieces in place to make sure we get them the ball, and we can get our attack going a little bit more this year than we had last year.”
This year’s group of seniors includes Meloche, Coutcher, midfielder Emma Lewis, and defender Hayley Fallgren.
“They've already shown very good leadership throughout the summer,” Lacer said. “I will look to rely on them to contribute a lot this year and be good leaders throughout the season.”
Aside from that leadership, Oak Harbor will carry a roster experienced with Lacer’s system into its season opener on Aug. 18 at Port Clinton.
“We're still going to be young essentially, but our junior class, a lot of them have played since they were freshmen, so they have a lot of experience moving forward,” Lacer said. “This will be their third year now, and our senior class is experienced, as well. They've all been with me for the last three years, so they kind of know what we want to do.”
