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Elyria Catholic ends Mooney’s season again
By Greg Gulas
MACEDONIA
The storyline for Saturday’s Division III girls soccer regional final between Cardinal Mooney High and Elyria Catholic was simple.
Win and become the first team from your county to advance to the state’s “Final Four” field.
The Cardinals will have to wait another year for another chance to be Mahoning Valley’s first representative.
Two goals by Keely Birsic and the fourth shutout in five tournament games by Stevie Holbrook helped the Panthers to a 4-0 win over the Cardinals and a regional championship at Nordonia High School’s Boliantz Field.
Elyria Catholic (16-1-4), which eliminated Cardinal Mooney, 2-1, in a regional semifinal last season, now becomes the first Lorain County representative to advance to state play.
With the game scoreless through the first 38 minutes and 37 seconds, Cardinal Mooney’s Elizabeth Philibin sprained an MCL and unable to return to the game.
Philibin scored two goals during the Cardinals’ 6-0 regional semifinal game win over Rootstown on Tuesday.
Five seconds later, Jenna Smith’s breakaway goal gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
“We’ve come a long way since the beginning of the season, from getting our passes down to our shots on goal to working together,” Smith said. “Our defense is so strong that they just know what to do from the start of the game until the final gun. They work so well together.”
Cardinals coach Frank Sikich knew that his team had to play a nearly flawless game.
“It was an evenly played game throughout most of the first half so to give up a score just five seconds after Elizabeth’s injury took a little steam out of us,” Cardinals coach Frank Sikich said. “We had a great season and I am proud of the many accomplishments of our girls this year.”
Birsic’s first goal of the game at 31:20 of the second half increased the Panthers’ lead to 2-0 and when she added another at 24:09 — for her sixth multi-goal game this season — Elyria Catholic led 3-0.
“I cannot tell you how exciting it is to be the first team from Lorain County to be going to the state tournament,” Bircic said.
Jenna Ellingson’s goal with 8:36 remaining rounded out the scoring for the Panthers.
Holbrook, who now has 13 shutouts on the season, said her defense makes it easy when she is in goal.
That defense allowed just three total shots by the Cardinals, none of which were on goal.
“Cardinal Mooney didn’t get many shots on goal and that’s a direct result of the play of our defense,” Holbrook said. “Coach [Tony] Rozanc asked us at the beginning of the year what our goal was. We answered, ‘State,’ and now it has happened. It’s a very special feeling.”
Rozanc was appreciative of the effort from both teams.
“It’s a great accomplishment for both teams to get to this game. We were nervous the first 10-15 minutes of the game, but settled down and I was proud of how we adjusted,” he said.
With 60 goals scored, the Cardinals’ Juliana Vazquez finished first in the state in that category. She is second all-time for goals scored in a single season.
“While it’s disappointing to lose, we accomplished a lot this season and have come a long way since my freshman and sophomore seasons,” Vazquez said. “We’ve had a great year offensively and our defense has been very good as well. To paraphrase an old Dr. Seuss quote, we won’t cry because it’s over. Instead, we’ll smile because it happened. We had a great season.”
Cardinal Mooney’s Lexy Herman finished first in the state and is now first all-time with 38 assists in a season.
Mooney finished with 133 goals this season, good enough for third-place all-time in any division for goals in a season.