Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
LOGAN — When the OHSAA announced it would expanded divisions this year, winning a district title may have taken on a different meaning for some programs.
Not for Chillicothe.
In fact, to the Cavaliers’ seniors, any result less than a district crown would have been a disappointment.
In search of its first district title since 2016, Chillicothe met up with Marietta in a Division III district final at Logan High School on Saturday afternoon, and took care of business.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
After a slow start, the Cavaliers (17-3) capitalized on possessions when they needed to and played suffocating defense, working their way to a 4-0 victory and claiming a district title to punch a ticket into the Sweet 16.
“It’s been a while since 2016. We won it here, as well, in 2016, and we beat the same two teams to get here that year,” Chillicothe head coach Mike McCorkle said. “We were 3-3 at one point in the season and these guys have won 14 games in a row. They’re playing tremendous soccer right now. These are some great kids with great character, and they work hard every day, and I’m very proud of them.”
“There’s a trophy case as you enter our gym, and it has that 2016 district champion trophy in there. We’ve always wanted to be in there,” Chillicothe’s Carter Dunfee said. “We were looking at it today before the game and just had that want to be in that case and have our names in there.”
The Cavaliers went empty possession after empty possession for the first 30 minutes of game time. Despite Marietta tallying no shots on goal in that time span, Chillicothe was unable to capitalize on its four shots on goal and four corner kicks.
But that all changed at the 8:16 mark.
Isaac Herlihy lined up for his team’s fifth corner of the day and, after the kick was deflected near the goal by a Marietta defender, Dunfee was there on the rebound and connected with nylon to put the Cavaliers up 1-0 — a score that would hold firm at the halftime break.
“We had to win the first half. We thought that would be an advantage for us. Marietta had no shots on goal in the first half, so to get at least one goal in the first half was extremely important,” McCorkle said. “We knew if Marietta got a goal coming out of half to make it 1-1, we would be in a dogfight. We knew we were going to have to work hard and get that second goal, too.”
After Chillicothe found its rhythm at the end of the first half, It carried it over into the second.
With 36:09 left, Aidan Fischer found Dunfee on the attack. Dunfee darted past two Marietta defenders and drew the keeper out of position before sliding the ball into the net for his second goal of the day, pushing the lead to 2-0.
Fischer would stay involved in the offense, and with 28:44 left, the senior scored a goal of his own, thanks to an assist from Gabe Ramsey, extending the advantage to a 3-0 margin.
That would be enough to put the Tigers away, but Fischer’s day wasn’t over.
With 11:10 left, the midfielder charged toward the goal and fired from the top of the box, where the ball again found the back of the net for his second goal of the afternoon, putting the exclamation point on a 4-0 win.
“Coach [Todd] Morris for Marietta and I are good friends and I have tremendous respect for Marietta. They are fierce competitors and we’ve done battle with them for years. They’re the program in the Southeast District that everybody looks up to,” McCorkle said. “I’m glad I have a little more time to figure out what I’m going to say to this team if we get that loss down the road, and I’m glad I don’t have to say it today. I’m just really proud of our guys.”
“Going into freshman year, I never thought this was a possibility,” Aidan Fischer said. “I love these kids. It was a great opportunity and I’m excited to play Wednesday and keep it going.”
Chillicothe advances to a DIII regional semifinal at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, where it’ll meet with Steubenville, a 1-0 winner over John Glenn in the East District.
That matchup will take place at Athens High School’s Joe Burrow Stadium.
“I felt that we matched up well with anybody in the East, so I’ll try to find out what I can about [Steubenville] and go from there,” McCorkle said. “I’ll try to develop a practice plan on Monday, but we feel very fortunate to be moving on this time of year.”
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