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THE PLAINS — Chillicothe is 80 minutes away from the Division III state tournament.
The Cavaliers put themselves in that position with a 5-0 win over Steubenville on Wednesday at Athens High School — using a smothering defense as their power source.
“Our defense was solid again tonight,” Chillicothe coach Mike McCorkle said. “We were very scrappy in the box and winning 50-50 balls. We know a much tougher test is coming up next game and we will have to clean some things up.”
Less than two minutes into the action, the Cavaliers (18-3) were on the scoreboard.
Isaac Herlihy found the back of the net with 38:18 left to play in the first half, thanks to an assist from Sonny Garcia. The feed came off a free kick and Herlihy headed it into the goal.
The next score came at the 13:39 mark when Aidan Fischer found Henry Byrd on a counter-attack, giving Chillicothe a 2-0 lead at halftime.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
“I didn’t think we were sharp in the first half,” McCorkle said. “We gave them too many opportunities and we were fortunate to go into half up 2-0.”
The advantage swelled to 3-0 with 33:44 remaining when Gabe Ramsey scored. It came on an assist from Carter Dunfee, who played the ball across the box to find Ramsey.
Less than five minutes later, with 29:05 to go, Herlihy bagged his second goal of the evening, coming on a direct free kick from 25 yards out to make it 4-0.
Then, with 13:17 left, off an assist from Jace Copley, Dunfee put the icing on the cake with yet another score.
The win is Chillicothe’s 15 consecutive. In the tournament alone, the Cavaliers have outscored their opponents — Fairfield Union, Athens, Marietta and Steubenville — by a 22-2 margin.
They’ll now advance to a Division III regional final at noon on Sunday at Lancaster’s Fulton Field. There, they’ll meet with Columbus DeSales, a 2-1 double overtime winner over Bishop Watterson.
“I’m proud of the team and what they have accomplished this season,” McCorkle said. “18 wins ties the program record for most victories in a season. This is also the second time in our program’s history we have reached the regional final. Both those records were set by the 2016 squad. It would be nice to break that record.”
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