Westlake senior and leading scorer Kelsey Slater has missed the Lady Demons’ last few games due to an injury but is expected back for the playoffs. (Photo by Larry Bennet)

Five SWC girls soccer teams ranked for state playoffs
By Zachary Dzurick
Sports
Published Oct. 20, 2004

The second season. It doesn't matter what your record was during the regular campaign, everyone starts out 0-0. But that doesn't make everyone equals. The

SWC conference has obviously earned the respect of local soccer coaches. Five schools have earned seeds for the upcoming D-1 and D-2 tournaments.

Westlake and North Olmsted earned the top two seeds in the D-1 tourney while two time defending champ Bay is the number one seed in D-2. Surprising Fairview earned the second seed in D-2 while Rocky River was voted the fourth seed.

"It is an big honor for the SWC to have five teams seeded," Fairview coach Michael Lucskay said.

Westlake won the conference with a 5-1 mark but for third straight year had a perfect conference mark ruined by Bay. Westlake coach Scott Jones said don't let Bay's 8-7-1 record fool you.

"No one is talking about Bay in D-II right now because of their record being close to .500," Jones said. "But look at the teams they are playing, the best teams in the state of Ohio game in and game out. They are holding their own and winning half of them. Come playoff time in D-II they will go very very far. It would not surprise me if they won another state title."

It will also be the end of an era as the three D-2 schools will be leaving the conference next season to join the Westshore Conference.

"It will be kind of sad," North Olmsted coach Tom Greene said. "I grew up with this conference. It has been the leading conference in the state of Ohio for girls soccer."

"Win states," Klein said. "Plain and simple. We can take it all if we work hard enough. We work very well together. Our defense is very solid. Nothing really gets behind Steph (Szarka). We are always marking tight. Our mid field is always working hard. Tara (McCrone) and Brooke (Henderson) control the middle. (Kelsey) Slater up front, she is heck of a player and always working hard. And Hanna (Wilde) is Hanna. She can shoot from just about every where and dribble through just about anyone."

Westlake is 10-3-3. They have been hit hard with injuries. Seniors Rachel Green and Chelsea Pavlik were lost for the season. Sophomore Ashley Pease will miss the first few rounds of the playoffs after being knocked out cold for about twenty seconds against Magnificat. Their leading scorer, Slater with 14 goals and 8 assists, missed the Bay and Magnificat games. It is hoped she will be back for Saturday's game. Wilde and Klein have also missed some games. "We have been pretty successful the last couple of years and this is our best all around team," Jones said.

Wilde is second on the team with 9 goals and 12 assists. But besides Slater and Wilde, the Lady Demons have many players who can put the ball in the net.

"We are very spread around and we got four or five girls with five goals." Jones said. "Our numbers are high as a team but not so much as an individual which is better for us.

"I think we are ready to rock and roll," Greene said. "We are 12-1-1 since those early games. We are not a high scoring team but we aren't afraid of anybody."

Junior Mandi Back leads the team with 16 goals and 11 assists but after that the scoring is balanced. Jackie Mahon has 6 goals and 5 assists. Amy Spence has 5 goals and 6 assists. Amanda Spence has 3 goals and 2 assists. Meghan Hall and Lauren Wilhelm also contribute offensively.

"We have a lot of kids creating," Greene said.

On defense, Katie Berry has developed into an outstanding goal keeper.

"Katie has matured into a really good goal keeper," Greene said. "She has made some great saves in big games."

Other outstanding defenders include Shannon Eccleston, Kori O'Neill, Laura Mayer, Cassie Thomas and Wilhelm.

"Kori has been unbelievable," Greene said. "She and Shannon can't be beat. And Willie is an enforcer. She wins every 50/50 ball. She is a beast."

Greene knows he can't look past a talented Magnificat team but he believes his team has a shot to go a long way.

"They believe in themselves. We have turned things around. We believe."

Lucskay has two of the state finest on defense.

"Christine Rehnert should probably be All-Ohio," Lucskay said of his senior sweeper. "She was just super this year. It was fun to watch all of the college coaches talk to her after games."

And while Lucskay thinks highly of Rehnert, he gushes about his junior goal keeper.

"Marcia Borgman is the top ranked goalie in the state of Ohio," Lucskay said. "In 16 games, she has allowed just 18 goals against top competition. She could be a keeper on any boys team. She is that good. I was a professional goal keeper and I am not used to seeing a girl be that good. I believe it is possible that Hathaway Brown's Courtney Rosen and Marcia could both play for the National team some day."

Lucskay also has three talented midfielders with seniors Erin Carroll, Jenny Klag and sophomore Melissa Chrisafi.

"Jenny has ten goals and Erin has seven goals," Lucskay said. "But have exceptional ball control. Melissa is the future. She is only a sophomore and is recovering from having a cyst removed. She does a really good job."

At forward, senior Sara Thadeus has 13 goals while junior Stacie Dorian provides ball control.

"Sara is an exceptional player," Lucskay said. "Stacie has beautiful ball control. We beat Beaumont 4-0 in our last game and their coach was like who was number 14 because she was almost unstoppable."

Lucskay hopes his difficult schedule has prepared his team for the postseason but he knows from experience that anything can happen.

"We play strong teams and that has made us better. We are on an upswing," Lucskay said. "But anything can happen. The year I coached the boys to state. We played Oberlin the first game and out of nowhere they were beating us with seven minutes to go in overtime. We tied it and won on penalty kicks then won five games in a row but we almost lost the first game."

"Although Courtney gets credit on record for these eight shutouts, it is a complete team accomplishment. Our defense has been awesome all year," Salco said, "I am not only proud of Courtney, but all of the girls."

Some of Rocky River's top defenders are junior sweeper Abbey Suttman, junior stopper Debra Leitch, junior outside backs Jessa Lydon and Caroline Carte and sophomore outside backs Catie Manns and Beth Jaworski.

Salco believes his team is playing their best soccer of the year right now.

"We have won 4 of our last 5 games and have only given up 4 goals and scored 17 in those games," Salco said. "I feel really good about our team right now. We had our ups and downs in the middle of the season, but have pulled together as a team and are on top of our game right now. If we play the way we have been playing as of late, I think we could make a great run in the D-II tournament."

Salco has a balanced offense. Senior midfielder Anne Jaworski has 7 Goals and 6 assists. Sophomore forward Ashley Rucker has 7 goals and 3 assists. Junior midfielder Kelly Peters adds 6 goals with her 5 assists. Junior forward Caitlin Burke also has 6 goals to go with her 4 assists. Sophomore midfielder Meredith Gourash has 5 goals and 3 assists. Junior midfielder Brie Patterson has scored 4 times to go with 5 assists.