[ back ]
Chagrin Falls wins district soccer title
(by Tony Lange - November 03, 2011)
Chagrin Falls wins district soccer title
By TONY LANGE
After a dominant win in the quarterfinals, Chagrin Falls boys' soccer team persevered through overtime against Beachwood and an 80-minute battle with University School to take home a district championship.
Beating University School 3-2 at Chagrin Falls last Thursday propelled the Tigers to a Division II district championship they were favored to win the University Heights' 12-team bracket.
While University School was seeded No. 2 in the district, the Preppers and Tigers tied 0-0 during their regular season matchup in September. With the district win, Chagrin Falls improved to 12-4-2 on the season, while University School finished at 10-6-2.
University School is always a difficult matchup for the Tigers, Chagrin Falls head coach Mario Gerhardt said.
"We knew we had to play hard and also that we needed a little bit of luck," Gerhardt said. "It was probably the hardest-working team from Chagrin that I've seen in a long, long time. These guys just worked, worked, worked until the end."
Quinn Malone scored a goal off a long throw in during the first half for the Tigers making it a 1-0 game at halftime.
In the second half, University School's Ryder Bell tied it up at 1-1.
Blake Schach then gave Chagrin Falls a 2-1 advantage with an impossible shot, Gerhardt said.
"He got the ball and he took an impossible shot from the outside and it went from the right-top-front cross post into the side netting," he said. "It was an unbelievable shot."
Alex Hallwachs then scored for the Tigers' 3-1 advantage
University School's Johnny McGuinnis scored a goal with 10 minutes left, but the Tigers held on to win.
Three days earlier, the Tigers took Beachwood in a 2-1 game when Malone scored the winning goal two minutes into overtime. Matt Simon had the other goal for Chagrin.
The Tigers had beat Beachwood 1-0 during their regular season matchup in September.
Gerhardt said he hates to play a team a second time after already beating them once.
"It's very difficult," he said. "Sometimes players will think it's an easy team, but Beachwood is never an easy team. I was disappointed when we tied US the first time 0-0, but in the big picture is was good because it let our players know that we would have a hard game."
While Chagrin Falls was not in the top 10 among Division II teams in the final Associated Poll, the Tigers had been earlier in the season, one in which the Tigers have endured many lineup changes.
After the second game of the season, a 2-2 tie against Rocky River, the Tigers moved their star senior goalkeeper, Schach, to center midfielder, and their senior starting sweeper, Hallwachs, to forward. During that switch, they repositioned their defense from a stopper-sweeper formation to a flat-back four.
Winning six of their next seven games, the rearranged strategy appeared to be working for the Tigers who only gave up five goals in those games.
However, with a torn ACL suffered by defenseman Griffin Sukel against Aurora, the Tigers went on to lose three of their last five games heading into the postseason.
Another dramatic lineup change was sure to follow.
For the playoffs, the Tigers decided to go back stopper-sweeper defense, but this time with Joey McSherry as a sweeper and Hallwachs in front as a stopper. Rory Gibert and Andrew Passalaqua, freshman, are the marking backs.
With Colin Groneman back at forward from his collarbone injury, Schach, the standout goalkeeper, transitioned from a center mid to and outside mid.
The two previous central defenders, Johnny Ciabatti and Spencer Sukel, are now playing center midfielders.
"This is the big switch," Gerhardt said. "We wanted to keep the flat-back four to control midfield, but that wasn't happening. What we did is switch the two central defenders and made them central midfielders almost like their playing defense in the midfield and winning the ball and pushing them to Groneman or Blake."
With 11 goals in three post season games and a district title, it appeared to have benefited the Tigers.
[ back ]
