Coach Mike McLaughlin's varsity scoccer program, winners of a record five Division I state championships, put together a dominant performance in all phases of the game on Wednesday night and eliminated the Valley Forge Patriots in a district semifinal match on Wasmer Field.
By Eddie Dwyer, Copyright October 2012
Saint Ignatius’ outstanding senior defender Jake Roth said we’re at the point of the season when the Wildcats have to bring everything they have, “put it all out there.”
On what was an Indian Summer Wednesday night in Ohio City, Roth and his teammates came out in a seasonable fashion one associates with the state’s top-ranked soccer team and left no leaf unturned on Wasmer Field.
With Roth playing a marvelous all-around game and the Wildcats passing the ball in a manner that would have made the national teams from Brazil and Spain proud, Saint Ignatius methodically wore down the Patriots from Valley Forge, 11-0, in a district semifinal match.
The Wildcats (15-0-3), winners of a record five Division I boys state championships, including the past two, will now prepare for Saturday afternoon’s district title match against the top-seeded St. Edward Eagles (13-1-4) at the Eagles’ Coughlin Field. St. Edward's athletic web page has the game sheduled for 1:30 p.m. That is a perfect starting time in that it will allow fans from both schools the time to make their way to Parma's Byers Field for the Eagles-Wildcats football showdown at 7 p.m.
On Sept. 19 of this season, the Wildcats and the Eagles battled to a spirited 0-0 tie on Coughlin Field and last year the staunch rivals played one of the most dramatic games in the history of Ohio high school soccer, with Saint Ignatius prevailing in Golden Goal fashion in a district final on Wasmer Field.
“We can’t wait to play St. Eds again,” Roth said, emphasizing that the Wildcats are using the tournament seeding as their motivation.
You can bet Valley Forge (10-7-2) is in no hurry to see Saint Ignatius again as even the final score doesn’t indicate just how dominant Coach Mike McLaughlin’s team was.
Gifted senior forward and Co-Captain Nate Fahey fueled the offensive assault by scoring the game’s first goal with 28:44 remaining in the first half. Nate’s first of his three goals on the night came off a perfect dump of the ball by multi-skilled senior midfielder and Co-Captain Ty Sanda and an on-the-money cross from hard-nosed junior midfielder Alec Nagucki. Fahey has now surpassed the 30-goal mark for his career.
Moving the ball with precision and making it extremely tough for the Patriots to clear, the Wildcats made it 2-0 on a goal by senior midfielder Bryan Leneghan, a hustle effort that saw Leneghan run down the ball and fire it home.
With just under 22 minutes to go in the first half, Nagucki found the left corner of the net off an assist from Fahey, Sanda followed with a perfect header off an assist from Roth, Roth scored from distance on an authoritative shot and after a nice one-on-one save by sophomore goalie Mikal Outcalt, senior midfielder Nick Taljan pushed the lead to 6-0 with his net-finder. Fahey closed out the first-half scoring with a smooth tap in.
Fahey and Roth agreed that the Wildcats “came out on fire” in building their 7-0 halftime lead.
“We came into this game knowing that they’re not the best team we’ve ever played,” said Fahey. “But we had to give them our best game. We came out here and made a huge a statement (as the second seed).”
Fahey wasted little time in securing his hat trick, as he scored with the second half less than six minutes old. With Coach McLaughlin clearing his bench, the final 40 minutes also featured two goals by sophomore midfielder Bobby Barsic and a tally by junior forward Chris Pietrow.
“It came up during our pregame,” said Fahey, referring to the fact that Wednesday night’s game was the last home match on Wasmer Field for Coach McLaughlin’s talented senior class. “I thanked all of the underclassmen for putting in such a great performance. As the last game as an Ignatian at home, it was the biggest thing to come out and win by such a large margin. And for everyone to play as immaculately as they did, I couldn’t ask for anything better. My teammates just played unreal tonight.”
Coach McLaughlin ‘85, who now has 302 career victories in what is his 18th season as his alma mater’s head soccer coach, was also quite pleased with the effort he saw.
“I'm pleased with the intensity we started with and finished with,” Coach McLaughlin said. “You can see that we’ve played a season now and we’ve learned to do the things we need to do in order to be the best team in the state. Now it’s a matter of going out and doing it for 80 minutes, and tonight I thought we did it for 80 minutes.”