South Range displays its depth in 7-1 soccer win over ITCL rival

Six players scored for the Raiders against Crestview in Wednesday’s game.

By DOUG CHAPIN

Vindicator Correspondent

GREENFORD — South Range High boys soccer coach Bill Wagenhouser isn’t kidding when he describes his team as young and well-rounded.

Six different players scored as the Raiders rolled over Crestview, 7-1, Wednesday in an Inter-Tri County League contest at South Range Middle School.

“We’ve got a very good team. It’s a young team, but very talented,” Wagenhouser said. “I told the boys before the game if you play your game and play hard we’re going to beat this team.

“We did and, if anything, we didn’t score enough in the first half. We’ve got to take our time, take better shots and put them in the goal. That’s what it’s about. We’ve got a couple of tough games next week and we’ll see what happens.”

The Raiders, who won the ITCL title and were a district semifinalists last season, are 5-2-1 overall and 3-1 in the league. Their lone league loss is to East Palestine, which visits South Range next week.

“We’re getting better every game. Our progress from last year is there too,” Wagenhouser said. “We had a great season last year, we won the league title, we won 14 games.

“The question is — we lost some good scorers from last year — would we have to rebuild or could we just reload. I think we were rebuilding the first four or five games, but now we’re starting to score goals.”

Sophomores Jordan Baker and Joel Skidmore opened the scoring for South Range. Baker scored in the eighth minute from a difficult angle on the right side about 20 yards out.

Skidmore’s tally came in the 31st minute on a rebound after Crestview freshman Derrick Bable, who recorded nine saves for the game, stopped an initial shot by Andy Lacefield, also a sophomore.

Crestview (2-6, 0-4 ITCL) responded two minutes later with a goal from in front of the net by sophomore Tyler Ogler after an outstanding cross by senior Justin Kleinknecht.

Kleinknecht, a second team all-state player a season ago, is the lone senior on the Rebels’ roster, which also includes just two juniors. South Range also is young with nine sophomores, including goal keeper Issac Schuster who recorded three saves, including a penalty shot.

“We’ve got two sophomores starting at forward [Baker and Skidmore], they’re very talented. Our defense is anchored by a couple of seniors [Sam Couchenour and Justin Niemie]. They [Crestview] only scored one goal tonight and we’ve had a couple of shutouts,” Wagenhouser said. “We’ve got a very well-rounded team. I am very pleased. We’ve got nine sophomores and they all play, the two freshman played a lot tonight. It’s just a good team.”

South Range responded quickly to Crestview’s goal, re-establishing a two-goal lead at 3-1 when freshman Andrew O’Leary, in the 37th minute, scored off a rebound. Bable made an excellent save on Lacefield before O’Leary knocked the ball into the net.

Crestview carried the play the last few minutes of the first half, including winning the aforementioned penalty kick which Schuster stopped.

However, South Range put the game away in the first four minutes of the second half with goals by Lacefield, who finally got one past Bable, and Niemi, who expertly headed home a cross from fellow senior Clayton Proch to make the score 5-1.

Lacefield and Nathan Lotze scored late goals for the Raiders to round out the scoring.

Unofficially, South Range held a 30-14 edge in shots.