In mid July, Chesterland's Sam Sarver was promoted to FC Dallas in the MLS, the United States top men's professional soccer league.
Game photos click here.
In mid July, Chesterland’s Sam Sarver was promoted to FC Dallas in the MLS, the United States top men’s professional soccer league.
After Sarver’s promotion to the MLS, he provided a message to aspiring Geauga County athletes looking to achieve greatness. In his message, Sarver emphasized the importance of believing that anything is possible.
In addition, in other interviews, Sarver said having fun and wearing his heart on his sleeve is how he likes to play the game.
Just like Sarver, the NDCL Girls soccer team under second year Head Coach Pam Malone, the second all-time winningest High School Girls Soccer Coach in the State of Ohio, is believing and playing with heart on their sleeve.
This belief and demonstration of heart was evident in the Lions’ 7-0 first round OHSAA playoff victory over the Boardman Spartans on Oct. 16 at Lions Stadium.
Leading the way for the Lions was senior Dria Duqum who had four of her team’s seven goals.
Duqum said that before the season the seniors came up with the idea of having the word “heart” be their motivational mantra.
“It’s helped us to stay motivated, even when things are tough, you can use heart to push through,” Duqum said.
As a sign of motivational commitment, Coach Malone sewed a small red heart on each of her player’s uniform the day before the Lions’ first playoff game.
“Just having that word (heart), and having that guidance, and knowing we want to play with our heart and have the heart of a champion (can give the team an edge),” Coach Malone said.
With belief and heart on display against the Spartans, the Lions accomplished three main goals they had set at the start of their season, including double digit victories, goals scored, and scoring on set pieces.
A great example of the power of believing can be seen in the goal setting process Coach Malone used with her team during the pre-season.
“We looked at previous seasons, and we looked at the past six years, how have they done and how did we want to leave our mark,” Coach Malone said. “We looked at last year’s goals for and I think we wanted 38 (for 2025). I threw out the number 50 when we were goal setting, and they go, ‘No that’s a lot,’. I said you’ll hit it, you’ll hit it. And tonight we did hit it.”
In addition, Coach Malone said that the Lions accomplished two additional season performance goals against the Spartans including scoring on 12 set pieces, and getting double digits wins.
“Tonight was definitely a checklist of ‘we met that goal’,” Coach Malone said.
With their victory over the Spartans, the Lions got their tenth victory and now have scored 51 goals on the season.
Senior Dria Duqum said that the goal setting process was helpful.
“We set high goals for ourselves and we were determined to beat out last year’s and the year before’s total goals. It just really motivated us,” said Duqum.
Sophomore Ella Ko added, “I think (setting goals) just helped us to recognize that we’re playing for each other and that we’re all playing for the same end goal and we have to lift each other up and push each other to do our best because we all want what’s best for the team.”
In order to reach their goals, and put seven goals into the back of the net against the Spartans, Ko said that the Lions offense did a good job of starting strong.
“Our offense really started flowing straight from the beginning which is something we’ve kind of struggled with (this season),” said Ko. “But towards the end of the season we’ve really started to pick it up and do well.”
Coach Malone said that the Lions offensive performance against the Spartans was a good demonstration of the things they had been working on all season.
In particular, Coach Malone said that the Lions have been working on diagonal passes and diagonal runs in the final third of the pitch.
Duqum’s first two goals of the game exemplified what the Lions did well throughout the game.
“The first goal was a breakaway,” said Duqum. “I feel like we really did good with communicating and getting that through diagonal ball, and I just happened to have that good run and I hit it in. And then the second one was another breakaway and I faked the goalie out and took it and shot it when I had the extra space.”
Duqum’s two goals were scored in the fifth and the 12th minute of the first half to give the Lions a 2-0 lead.
Ko then found the back of the net in the 36th minute to give the Lions a 3-0 lead heading into halftime.
The Lions scored four goals in the second half in order to break 50 goals for the season.
To start the second half, Ko got an early goal. Then in the 54th minute, Marija Vukovic scored to put the Lions up 5-0.
The Lions final two goals were scored by Duqum.
For the season the Lions offense has been led by Ko (51 points – 21 goals, 9 assists), Duqum (35 points – 11 goals, 13 assists), Emilee Gruss (30 points – 12 goals, 6 assists), Marija Vukovic (12 points – 4 goals, 4 assists), Lexi Dobbert (3 points – 1 goal, 1 assist), Klara Stergar (3 points – 1 goal, 1 assist), Giavanna Tibaldi (3 points – 3 assists) and Sadie Wurm (1 point – 1 assist).
