Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Oak Harbor girls soccer team returns 15 seniors and gets multiple players back from injury as fifth-year head coach Ryan Lacer is excited for his team’s potential coming off a 13-3-3 season that saw a third-consecutive NBC championship.
“Fortunately for us, we're going to be pretty deep this year,” he said. “We're going to have nearly 40 girls total in the program this year, so we're pretty excited about having a big group, and my senior class is pretty large. Some of them will definitely step up and fill some holes this year for us.”
The Rockets will have to overcome the graduation losses of First Team All-NBC selection Kaitlyn Meloche, Honorable Mention All-NBC Emma Lewis, Hayley Fallgren and Abby Coutcher. Lewis and Meloche were second and third, respectively, in goals scored, and all four started.
Back are players such as Claire Blausey, who led the team in scoring with 18 goals and seven assists, and Kendall Gaines, who had a team-best 11 assists along with four goals. Multi-year starter Haylee Robinson is back in goal after allowing just 11 goals in 18 games and center back Brooke Tabbert returns, as well.
“They all work together. They all have lots of experience,” Lacer said of his returners. “A lot of them have been playing since they were freshmen for me at the varsity level and have a lot of experience. Kendall started pretty much every game last year for us. And Skyler Schultz started last year a lot. She’ll get a lot of time this year again, too. That whole group is pretty good.”
Blausey and Gaines were each Second Team All-NBC, while Robinson joins fellow returners Avery Mikolas and Kennedy Slates as returning Honorable Mention All-NBC selections, which gives the Rockets five returning all-conference players. Slates and Schultz each scored five goals last year.
“Claire will play up top, and Avery is my wildcard,” Lacer said. “I’m not sure where she’ll fit in, but she's going to get lots of playing time. Through the summer, she's been pretty universal, playing both in the back and up top and midfield.”
Tabbert, along with Robinson in goal, are also part of a strong back line that gets multiple players back from injury. Senior Delaney Johnson missed all last year due to injury, but she was a starter her first two seasons. And sophomore Mya Smith was also out last year due to injury. Meloche is the only non-returner from the back line.
“That’s probably what I'm most excited about, having a couple of those girls come back from injury this year and actually getting them out on the field,” Lacer said. “I like our energy. They've come to summer stuff with good attitudes and ready to work. They put work in when nobody's watching them. I can tell that they've been doing stuff on their own. It just excites getting ready to start the season.”
The Rockets will also feature a strong group of freshmen as Lacer enters his 17th year overall with Oak Harbor soccer, which includes his previous time with the boys program. He said his overall roster numbers this year are by far the largest he’s ever seen at the school.
Those are the kinds of things that come with three straight league titles, as well.
“Our expectations are pretty high, like they usually are,” Lacer said. “We expect to compete for a league title, which will be really tough — Lake, Genoa, Eastwood are right up there. Rossford is up and coming — they’ve got a quality program going over there. And Otsego’s got a new coach this year, too, with Coach (Megan) Rutherford coming back to the league. It'll be pretty fun. Maumee is good. They beat us last year. They're going to be good again this year. I know they were pretty young. We're definitely going to have to be ready to go for everybody.”
