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Irish roll to shutout of Girard
By Jon Moffett
YOUNGSTOWN
In a lot of ways, Trey Roller is just a typical high school student.
He is admittedly more of an “act first, ask questions later” type, loves to play sports and always has time for a joke.
But where he differs is that the jokes stop when the sports start. That’s when it becomes business.
And Roller and his Ursuline High boys soccer teammates did their jobs admirably in a 4-0 rout of Girard High on the campus of Youngstown State University on Wednesday.
Roller and the defense stifled any type of momentum early and allowed a particularly potent offense do the heavy lifting.
Roller, a senior goalkeeper, made 10 saves and helped the Fighting Irish even their season record at 1-1.
Donning his signature flattop haircut, Roller said it felt nice to get the first win of the season under his belt. And his performance has him excited for the remainder of the year.
“I love adrenaline. I’m an adrenaline junkie,” he said. “And any time I can get a one-on-one save it just pumps me up and I just keep going.”
Ursuline head coach Roy Schmidt said Roller was thrown into the goal 11 games in to his freshman year due to an injury. Roller didn’t expect to play goal, but he loved it so much he hasn’t left.
“He’s become a really solid goalkeeper after time,” Schmidt said. “But he got lucky a couple of times tonight.”
Luck? Maybe.
Help? Definitely.
Roller and the defense had their jobs simplified thanks to classmate and fellow captain John Hintz and the offense.
Hintz scored a pair of goals and added assists on the other two, scored by junior Gianni Quattro.
Hintz broke the scoreless tie with 17:27 left in the first half on a penalty kick. Hintz targeted the top right corner of the net and rendered Indians goalkeeper Chris Mariano frozen.
The Irish never looked back and padded their lead with three goals after the break.
Hintz credited Roller and the stout defense for making his job easier.
“It’s a big help to have a defensive performance like that,” he said. “It takes a lot of pressure off of the offense. When you have [Trey] back there, you don’t have to think about going back to help on defense as much. You know he’s got it.”
He added that the offense is inspired to work even harder to help take the weight off the back end and help balance out the squad.
“It’s always a total team effort, and when you have everybody working so hard it makes you want to work even harder up front to put the ball in the net and win the game.”
Ursuline will face West Branch tonight at the Youngstown State field.