The Chardon Hilltoppers and Harvey Red Raiders boys soccer teams have both had fine seasons.
Game photos click here.
The Chardon Hilltoppers and Harvey Red Raiders boys soccer teams have both had fine seasons.
With Chardon winning their first meeting by a 3-2 count, the return matchup Oct. 15 looked to be a thrilling game, and it was. Chardon got an aggressive game going from the opening kickoff by sending the ball deep into Harvey territory to apply pressure on the defense, and proceeded to apply constant foot-to-ball all night, controlling the action for a 5-1 win in this sectional contest.
“We knew, from playing them early in the season, that this game would be a tough one,” Chardon Head Coach Mike Smith said. “The key would be to get the ball deep into their defensive areas early and often, keep it there as much as we could, (and) play with high energy, and that’s exactly what we did tonight.”
Much of the night’s action focused on the middle of the field, and while the Red Raiders (10-7-1) are a quality team with speed and skills, the Hilltoppers (14-3-1) used the experience of nine seniors, most of them corralling every ball into the middle of the pitch, to stop Harvey from getting into any offensive flow.
Keeping them on their heels also helped set up the Topper offense, and those midfielders did superb work getting the ball into the Harvey defensive end, where senior forward Anthony Catania was the sledgehammer to finish. Catania’s trio of goals and assists led a Chardon attack that peppered the goal with 27 shots, while the tight Chardon defense limited Harvey to just 13 shots on goal.
“Harvey has some players,” Catania said in celebration, as his team recorded a school record for a season with this 14th victory. Chardon also claimed its first WRC title.
Balance was the key.
“We knew they had some speed, ” Catania continued. “Our defense was able to slow the pace a little from last year, and we were able to get to balls in the middle of the field more often to keep their guys there. We worked on stopping their attack, and it worked well for us tonight.”
One young man who was involved in most of that midfield action was senior Evan Medved. His white hair made it easy to follow him from the press box, and he may have run a marathon all over the field without slowing down. With help from Connor Foley, Luke Vucetic, Will Monkiewicz and Austin Seese, any time Harvey got to the ball between the 30 yard lines of Memorial Stadium, you could count on at least two Hilltoppers being there as well, applying pressure to ball and player.
Catania scored the only goal of the first half at the 19:31 mark by taking a crossing pass from Will Monkiewicz in front of the goal and putting home a tough shot.
Needing more and knowing it, Catania scored again 2:35 into the second half on a similar play from Medved.
At the 10:30 mark, Medved got into the scoring act by taking a pass from Conner Foley that briefly bounced around right to Medved’s foot, and he drilled it home for a 3-0 lead.
At the 19:34 mark, Harvey showed they would not lay back. On an attack with full speed and force, Arturo Rangel was tackled in front of the goal mouth from about 20 yards out. His penalty kick hit the back of the net to cut the lead to 3-1, but that only fired up the Toppers more.
At 22:50, Luke Vucetic drilled home a rebound during a huge scrum in front of the net, and Catania completed his hat trick at 29:16 by taking a perfect lead pass from Dylan Schneier that put Catania in behind the defense, and his shot was true.
Medved sparked that area at midfield all night long.
He reiterated: “Our plan was to keep the ball in their third of the field defensively all night long. We knew if we kept the same energy going all night long, we could penetrate their defense and get good shots.”
Coach Smith was happy with the results, for sure.
“We feel we have a solid, all-around team this year that can play with anybody if we keep our energy levels up,” he said. “We don’t have any real weaknesses, and from top to bottom, our kids can play the game the way we want them to. Now we just get ready for our next game.”
That will come Oct. 23 against University School.
With good health and a new school record for wins, confidence and effort should take Chardon a long way down the tourney road.
