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Summit Country Day too strong for South Range in D-III final
Summit Country Day too strong in D-III final
By BRIAN DZENIS
COLUMBUS
There will be no ribbing of the South Range boys soccer team in the halls of the Raiders’ home school, because no one has done better.
The team had advanced the farthest it ever has in the postseason, both in program history and on Saturday night, it became the first sports team at South Range to play in a state championship. Unfortunately for the Raiders, that run ended in a 9-0 rout at the hands of Cincinnati Summit Country Day, which has now won three of the last four Division III state titles.
“We made history regardless if we won or lost,” senior Cole Frank said. “This team has gone farther than any other and I’m very proud to be a part of it.”
Coach Joe Staffeld credited his players for the first-ever trip to Columbus and when it came time for the post-game media scrum, he revealed one of the secrets to his team’s success. He beckoned over 23-year-old Zak Marriott, a Birmingham, England native who had been living with Staffeld since June.
“I don’t think think I would have got here on my own, I attribute our trip to Columbus to Zak,” Staffeld said. “Just the intensity and expertise ... just the knowledge of the game. Just things I don’t even think of, so it’s been a huge. I learned from a kid half my age.”
Marriott met Staffeld in the summer in a Challenger Sports summer camp, a program in Europe that sends aspiring English, Welsh or Irish soccer coaches to the United States to high school and youth teams. After spending three weeks in the Staffield house, Marriott was sold in sticking with the team. With the season over, he’ll return to England on Monday.
“I think we were lucky to have these bunch of lads,” Marriott said. “That’s lucky and we knew it was this year (we would make it), not next year or the year after, it was our year.
“The other lads — the other team — they had better quality. They had great passing, quality depth. Maybe if they came to our pitch they’d have a harder time.”
The wide field at MAPFE Stadium made it hard to maintain the conservative style of play that got the Raiders to the final. There was just too much room for the Silver Knights to work with.
The Raiders came out with four in the back and were judicious when it came to sending their midfield forward. Summit conversely devoted a lot of manpower to the attack and kept just three on defense, cutting it down to two at times because the Silver Knights controlled possession so often.
Summit needed just seven minutes to take the lead after Cameron Belle’s header off a corner kick.
Despite the early deficit, the Raiders stayed true to their form, packing it in on defense. That didn’t slow down the Silver Knights as they tacked on two more goals and out-shot the Raiders 11-1 in the first half.
South Range started the contest with Cole Frank, a 20-goal scorer, playing defense, but moved him back to forward for the second half. This adjustment allowed South Range to double its shot output to two shots before Frank went down with what looked like an ankle injury. Frank needed help off the field and Summit’s Harrison Schertzinger was given a yellow card for taking him down.
As play resumed, Summit’s Sam Martin scored two goals in rapid succession. After Charlie Maciejewski made it 7-0, Summit pulled the majority of its starters and the bench added two more goals.
South Range was treated to a rendition of the school’s alma mater during the final minutes of the game.
“It just shows the support from our school,” Frank said. “We had two spirit buses and that’s impressive. It’s like half the school and I love them all.”
South Range temporarily pulled its starting lineup just to get every player one chance to run on an MLS field before letting the seniors be there for time expiring.
“There wasn’t a chance we would come back, so we thought, ‘Let’s have fun with it,’ because that’s what this is really about,” Staffeld said.