Brock Netter, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
JACKSON — There are three things certain in life: death, taxes and Chillicothe’s girls soccer program winning the conference championship.
It’s a guarantee every season, or at least it seems like it has been for the past seven seasons.
Undefeated in conference play and with the Frontier Athletic Conference title hanging in the balance, Chillicothe (11-2-2, 9-0-1 FAC) left no doubt that the road to the crown still runs through the Cavaliers, racking up a 7-1 win at Jackson.
The victory marks Chillicothe’s eighth straight conference championship and its 13th consecutive win over the Ironladies.
“The team sets goals for itself every season, and one of the first goals is to win the conference title,” Chillicothe coach Zach Breth said. “I couldn’t have been more thrilled about the way the girls approached the game. When you get to play a team a second time after a tie, there’s a bit of a revenge factor and redemption. They’ve been looking forward to this game and played like they wanted it.”
The previous time the Cavaliers and Ironladies locked horns back on Sept. 20, the game ended in a 1-1 tie. But the Cavaliers don’t like sharing, and weren’t about to release their reign of conference supremacy.
Chillicothe went directly on the attack, taking shot after shot from close range to start the first half. However, those scoring attempts were thwarted at every turn by Jackson goalie Mattie Walburn.
PHOTOS: Images from Chillicothe’s win over Jackson
But the Cavaliers finally made a breakthrough when Kiera Archer struck the right side of the goal post and saw her shot ricochet into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Five minutes later, it was Addie Price’s turn to connect as she scored off an assist from Ali Mathis to put the Cavaliers ahead 2-0. Price then struck again four minutes later as her shot hit off Walburn’s hands and had just enough momentum to cross the goal line, extending the lead to 3-0.
“We knew coming in that we had to take better advantage of our chances this time around,” Breth said. “After the first two goals were scored, it’s all momentum from that point and they just continue coming. We’ve trained exceptionally hard from the last time we played Jackson not just for this game, but for upcoming tournament play as well.”
Mathis had dished an assist earlier, but it was then time for her to grace the scoring column. With the ball near the goal, she took a dribble and notched a goal in the bottom right corner for a 4-0 lead.
Then, with 0.7 seconds left in the first half, she took a final kick from 18 yards out and slotted it perfectly into the top left corner for her second goal of the night, making it a 5-0 count at halftime.
Jackson’s Sydney Carpenter scored to open the second half, which was followed by goals from Archer and the night’s final score from Mathis, giving her a hat trick on the evening and putting the finishing touches on a championship victory.
Chillicothe rounds out its regular season on Monday at home against Columbus Whetstone before turning its attention towards Division I tournament action.
Jackson rebounds at Logan that same evening.
“It takes us a minute to adjust to the difference of the central district like the pacing and physicality. So the next two weeks, basically, is about preparing and training for that,” Breth said. “Everything has to be done at a faster pace because it’s a different level of skill and speed when you play Columbus schools. We have enough players with that skill level to push ourselves in training, and we’re going to do that.”
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