When Southview High School closed, it hit close to home for Bobby Soler, whose entire family has graduated from the Lorain school located on State Route 57.

Just a year away from graduation, the Saints’ soccer standout was stressed about the closing and didn’t know where he wanted to attend high school for his final year.
His mom suggested moving to Amherst and the rest is history, so to speak. Solar signed his letter of intent to Tiffin University on Wednesday at the Steele High School library in front of his family, coaches and teammates.

"It was very tough, it really put a hurting on me," Soler said of the school closing. "I was pretty depressed about that. My mom mentioned that we could move to Amherst and I knew that Amherst had a pretty nice soccer program and it came through and we made a nice run."

Soler played two years at Southview before Lorain City Schools consolidated the school with Admiral King.

His Lorain roots run deep and he’s proud to be the first member of his family to attend college.

"It feels great. I wanted to please my family as the first generation to go to college," Soler said. "I wanted to prove that no matter where you come from, you can go to college."

Last fall was only Soler’s third season of soccer. He began playing his sophomore year and knew the odds that would be a collegiate player were against him, but what he didn’t have in talent and pedigree, he made up for with effort and heart.

"From the day that Bobby came in here, that’s the one thing that he brought," Amherst coach Brett Thompson said. "You saw how hard he worked. The things that impressed me instantly about Bobby were that he came in and had a tough team his senior year and he was determined to outwork everybody."

"I knew coming into varsity level that I wouldn’t have enough talent to be up to speed with everyone else," Soler said. "I thought if I just gave it my all then I’d make something happen on the field and that’s what I’ve done."

Soler finished the season at Amherst with six goals and two assists as the Comets reached the Division I district semifinals.

Picking a school is never easy, but when Tiffin came to Soler late in the game, things progressed quickly from there.

"I had a couple of offers from D-III but what makes (Tiffin) standout the most is that this one came out of nowhere and I got that call the weekend of my birthday saying they wanted to offer me to come play there," Soler said. "I got the call on Friday and went and on Monday I went and visited. Everything happened kind of fast but I went and visited and I loved it."

Soler said he’ll study forensic science at Tiffin.

courtesy of Colin Wilson

Avon’s Devon Saini and Cody Schroeder signed their letters of intent to continue their sports careers in college on Thursday in the Avon High School Auditorium.

Saini, a soccer standout, will continue her soccer career at Eastern Kentucky University (Division I).

Schroeder will continue his football career at California University of Pennsylvania (Division II).

courtesy of Sports@MorningJournal.com

Elyria Catholic's Joe Jovanovski signed a national letter of intent to continue his soccer career at Tiffin University at Elyria Catholic on Wednesday.

Jovanovski was a four-year letter winner at Elyria Catholic. This season, he scored a goal and had three assists.

His freshman year, he led the team with 12 assists. He earned All-County his junior year. He also earned All-County this season, along with All-Greater Cleveland honors.

Jovanovski will major in sports management.

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Vermilion’s Jeff Baker concluded his senior season at Cleveland State University.

He was named to the All-Horizon League second team after starting all 20 matches in midfield and serving as the Vikings’ team captain.

Baker was also honored for his academic success by being named a CoSIDA/ESPN Academic All-District first team selection.

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Ashland’s soccer team (13-5-3) was bounced from the first round of NCAA Tournament by No. 21 Missouri S&T (11-5-3), 3-1, in Highland Heights, Ky., at NKU Soccer Stadium. It is the third straight season the Eagles have lost in the first round of the postseason tournament.

The Eagles have dropped first-round NCAA Tournament games in the last three seasons. In Kansas City in 2008, Ashland lost, 3-2, to Northern Kentucky after falling behind 3-0 in that game. Last season, the Eagles dropped a 2-1 overtime decision to Lewis in Quincy, Ill.

Vermilion’s Kurt Innes closed out his sophomore season, while playing in six games, including two starts. He went 2-0 in those starts, which also include a shutout. He recorded nine saves on the year.

At Vermilion, he played goalkeeper all four years. He earned six letters, four in soccer and two in basketball. In soccer, he earned first team All-Lorain County honors in 2006, 2007 and 2008. In 2006 and 2008, he was second team All-West Shore Conference and made the first team in 2007. His team went 37-22-9 over the course of his career and won sectionals in 2006 and 2007. In basketball, his teams went 46-21 overall, and won a district championship in 2008 and sectional championships in 2007, 2008, 2009.

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Wellington’s Christian Huelsman and six other Ohio Northern soccer players were named All-Ohio Athletic Conference for 2010 in voting conducted by the league’s 10 head coaches.

Joining Huelsman on the first team were Nate Bascom, Cameron Johnson and Austin Windsor.

Chris Matejka and Mac Church were named Second Team All-OAC and junior Abrim Mueller was selected Honorable Mention.

ONU bowed out on Friday in its third-straight NCAA postseason appearance, losing 2-0 to host No. 18 Calvin (Mich.) at Zuidema Field in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament.

The Polar Bears wrapped up the season with a 17-5-1 record overall.

Huelsman, a 22-game starter at forward, led the Polar Bears’ offense this year with 32 points on 11 goals and 10 assists.

He has earned a .515 shot-on-goal percentage and has knocked in two game winning goals this season. In 2009, Huelsman was named Second Team All-OAC.

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Huron’s Andy Thompson, a junior defender at Baldwin-Wallace was named to the second team of the Ohio Athletic Conference, for his outstanding play this season.

Joining Thompson was Jeff Grater, who was named to the first team and as the OAC’s Midfielder of the Year. In addition, Tyler Leister, Carlin Vandendriessche and Pat Brennan were also selected to the second team.

Thompson finished the season with one goal and had the second most assists on the team with six for eight total points. He played in all 22 games and earned his third varsity letter as a three-year starter. Thompson will enter his senior season with five goals and 10 assists for 20 total points.

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Firelands’ Rachael Melendez closed out her sophomore season at Butler as Milwaukee defeated the Bulldogs, 5-0 in the championship match of the Horizon League Tournament at the Butler Bowl on Sunday.

This closes Butler’s season with a 9-11 record.

Melendez played and started in 19 games this season and is third in scoring. She scored three goals and assisted on three others.

Last year as a freshman, she played in 18 matches, including 12 starts. She recorded her first college goal in a win over Western Illinois (Aug. 30) and recorded her first assist against Purdue (Aug. 23).

At Firelands, she was All-Ohio her senior season, along with All-Lorain County three times and an All-Greater Cleveland selection. She was also named All-Ohio Second Team as a junior. She was also named the Lorain County Player of the Year her junior and senior season. She scored 102 career goals in high school including 60 as a senior.

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Two second-half goals by Wellington’s Greg Stawicki led the Ohio Northern soccer team to a 2-1 win over Baldwin-Wallace in the semifinal game of the Ohio Athletic Conference men’s soccer tournament.

With the win, the Polar Bears improve to 16-4-1 overall and advance to the tournament championship game.

Stawicki’s first goal (third on season) tied the game in the 56th minute. His goal was set up when Austin Windsor used a free kick to set up a shot by Nate Bascom. Bascom’s shot hit off the right post and a streaking Stawicki put the rebound in to tie the game at 1.

Stawicki scored his second goal of the day (fourth of season) in the 74th minute when he finished a pass from high school teammate Christian Huelsman into the goal to put Northern up 2-1.

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The Cleveland State Vikings defeated the top-ranked team in the country, Akron, 2-1, on Saturday at Krenzler Field.

Jordan Hart notched the game winner with just seven minutes to go in the game.

"This is a historic night for our program," head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "The win shows that the team has perseverance, having faith, and that we are humble. This is for Cleveland and hopefully this can make some noise about Cleveland and our program.

"I told the guys before the game to go out there and have fun and don’t regret afterwards. I told them to play their hearts out. I think we were able to make them off balance them was a combination of pressing them in their own end."

The Vikings improve to 8-9 on the year. The loss is the first for the Zips on the year and is now 14-1-1.

As much excitement there was leading up to the matchup of Northeast Ohio, both teams concluded the first half with a scoreless draw. Aslinn Rodas had the only Cleveland State shot on goal and the Viking defense held the high-powered Zips to just three shots on goal, none of which troubled Vikings goalkeeper Brad Stuver.
The Vikings took the lead just 12 minutes from time. At the 11:31 mark, Caleb Eastham crossed the ball into the middle of the box. Rodas flew into the box and buried the ball with his right foot into the back of the net.

"I thought when we scored, although we gave up the goal, we knew that we have gotten under their skin," Kazemaini said.

The top ranked team in the country was able to get the equalizer just minutes later. With 8:51 left in the second half, Akron’s John Gulden was taken down in the box just as he got into it and was awarded the penalty.

Michael Nanchoff took the penalty and beat goalkeeper Stuver into the bottom right hand corner. Stuver guessed correctly, dove to his left, but was unable to get the well-struck penalty.

"Even though they scored, we wanted to get the next goal because we knew that the game was going to be over with the next goal with such little time left," Kazemaini said.

The Vikings too the lead and got the eventual game winner from Hart. Hart’s first goal of the year came when he gathered the ball from the cross and put the winner in the back of the net with just 6:49 left in the match.

"It started just like any other play," Hart said. "I had so many things running through my head. I tried to just place the ball and I did not try to do anything special with it. I did not know what to do; I was in so much shock."

Akron pushed the equalizer, but was unable to find it. After the final whistle blew, Krenzler Field and the Viking bench erupted with emotion.

"The emotion was crazy," Kazemaini said. "I have not cried at a soccer game since I played professionally."

courtesty of Cleveland State Vikings athletic website

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Wellington’s Christian Huelsman was named the Ohio Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer Player of the Week for his play for Ohio Northern last week.

Huelsman led the Polar Bears (12-3-1 overall, 4-0-1 OAC) to a 7-0 victory over Otterbein and a 1-1 tie at Baldwin-Wallace last week.

He scored twice in the shutout win over Otterbein.

This marks the second time this season and the fourth time in his career that Huelsman has won the award.

Through 16 matches this season, Huelsman leads the squad in scoring with 26 points on 10 goals and six assists.

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Amherst’s Angelica Meggitt scored her second goal of the season for Baldwin-Wallace in a 3-1 loss to the fifth-ranked Otterbein last Saturday.

B-W closed the gap to 2-1 at the 75:54 mark when Meggitt dribbled the ball 30 yards with a tough defender on her the entire time, but got the shot off near horizontal to the goal box. She crossed it in front of the net, but it took an odd approach angle and went over the head of the goalie into the corner of the net.

The goal was only the third goal that Otterbein’s goalkeeper Tara Carter has allowed in 11 games.

Meggitt is a junior at Baldwin Wallace studying Middle Childhood Education. She has recently been accepted in the study abroad program where she will spend her spring junior year in Australia.

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Westlake’s Brooke Henderson tied for the team-high with four shots as Valparaiso outshot Loyola, 18-9 on Friday afternoon at Eastgate Field, but it was the Ramblers that pushed a goal across midway through the second half on the way to a 1-0 victory over the Crusaders.

Last year, Henderson appeared in 20 matches, making 19 starts, for the Crusaders as a sophomore. She was named to the Horizon League All-Tournament Team. She scored the match-winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Liberty on Sept. 18. She also scored a goal and added an assist on the match-winner against Wright State in the Horizon League semifinal on Nov. 6.

As a freshman, she played in all 19 matches, including 15 starts.

At Westlake, she was a three-time All-Southwestern Conference First Teamer and was named the SWC Most Valuable Player as a senior. She was named All-Ohio Third Team as a junior and a senior. She was also named an Adidas Scholastic All-American as a senior.

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Left: Angelica Meggitt, Right: Katie Finley

Vermilion’s Katie Finley made four saves as goalkeeper and earned her second win of the season in the net as Baldwin-Wallace defeated Hiram, 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday.

Finley played all 93 minutes as goalie and is now 2-0 as a starter. Rocky River’s Lindsey Mikula scored her second match-winning goal this season. Mikula’s match-winning came at the 93:00 minute mark of the first overtime. The goal was her third of the season. Mikula also scored the match-winner on Sept. 5 in a 2-1 overtime win versus host Penn State Behrend (Pa.) in the consolation match of the Behend Tournament.

Finley, who also plays softball, transferred from Defiance College.

Another area athlete on the team is Amherst’s Angelica Meggitt, a junior forward. Meggitt started all 20 games as a sophomore and played in 13 games as a freshman. Her first career goal came on Oct. 17, 2009 against Muskingum.

At Amherst High School, Meggitt was the Comets’ Offensive Player of the Year in all four years there.

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Wellington’s Greg Stawicki scored a goal at the 17:44 mark of the first half, helping lead Ohio Northern to a 2-0 victory over host Wittenberg on Tuesday night in Springfield.

It was Stawicki’s first goal of the season.

With the win, the Polar Bears improve to 4-2 overall and extended Northern’s winning streak to four games in a row.

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Wellington’s Christian Huelsman was named the Ohio Athletic Conference Player of the Week in men’s soccer for the week of Sept. 7-12, announced Monday.

Huelsman earned the honor for scoring four goals and assisting on another in the Polar Bears’ three wins last week. He recorded a goal and an assist in a 2-1 win at Earlham (Ind.), then followed up with his hat trick against Hanover (Ind.) in the ONU Invitational last Friday.

He leads Northern so far this season offensively with 12 points on five goals and two assists.

Last season as a sophomore, Huelsman was named OAC Player of the Week twice.

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Avon's Ryan Galik will continue his soccer career at Case Western University. The center midfielder scored 10 goals and assisted on 10 others for Avon last season. He was an All-Ohio first teamer, which was the first time an Avon soccer player accomplished the feat.

Galik is a four-year letter winner and was selected Lorain County Player of the Year and Academic All-Ohio in soccer and football.

As a student he maintained a 4.026 GPA and is ranked eleventh in his class. He plans to major in Bio-medical engineering.

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From L to R: Mark Mazzone, Greg Stawicki, Christian Huelsman
Mazzone

Huelsman

Stawicki

Three Wellington Dukes teammates thought it would be fun to continue playing soccer together after high school.

Sophomore standouts Christian Huelsman and Greg Stawicki, along with junior Mark Mazzone have known each other and played soccer together since elementary school all the way high school.

The trio made their dream a reality when they joined each other at Ohio Northern University, where they even helped lead the Polar Bears to their first-ever trip to the Elite-8 in the NCAA Division II National Tournament last season.

"It definitely makes the transition to college soccer a lot easier when you're comfortable with the players already," said Mazzone, who transferred there after playing at Guilford College in North Carolina his freshman season. "We have really good chemistry after playing so long together."

Huelsman, who is the all-time leading scorer in Dukes' history, couldn't be happier.

"I love it, it's so fantastic," Huelsman said. "We're in this together. We've always be doing this together. We're just so happy and so glad that we can share this experience. We've been through so much together. To see a lot of success out of all of our careers — is just amazing."

Huelsman leads the Polar Bears in goals (10) and points (23) for the second-straight year and is tied for second in assists (three). ONU currently stands at 10-3-2 and 4-0-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

"Our main goal is to be national champs," Huelsman said. "We have other goals to be conference champs and obviously win the OAC tournament. By doing that, it'll get us in the national tournament and then we can hopefully win it this year. We just have to take the steps along the way."

Last week, Huelsman recorded his second college-career hat trick in a 7-0 win over Defiance and then notched a goal and an assist in a 2-1 win over Muskingum. That earned him OAC Soccer Player of the Week honors.

"It's such a huge accomplishment, personally and as a team," Huelsman said. "When one of us wins player of the week, it's great because we all know that the whole team had something to do with it. You can't play this sport by yourself."

Last year, he started all 27 games and led the team with 18 goals and eight assists and broke the school record for most goals by a freshman. He was also selected first-team All-Ohio Athletic Conference, along with second team All-GLIAC. He's now in ONU's all-time top 10 in goals scored (27) and his 65 points is four shy of cracking that top 10 list.

"Not a lot of teams knew who I was so I got away with a lot more," Huelsman said. "This year, they know my number so I'm getting double-teamed more. This year I have to work harder. Every game is a different puzzle."

Last year, the trio helped Ohio Northern (20-6-1) make its first-ever trip to the Elite-8 in the NCAA tournament. Three wins in the tourney earned them a spot in the final eight, but a 4-1 loss to Loras (Iowa) ended their dreams of a Final Four appearance and a chance at a national championship.

"I knew Ohio Northern was going to be a perfect fit for me when I came here," Huelsman said. "Ohio Northern's style is what I was used to. I knew it was going to be great when I came to visit here."

Stawicki has played in 15 games, including six starts this season. He has seven goals, good for third on the team. He also has two game-winning goals.

"I got a lot of experience from last year and I'm getting more playing time this season," Stawicki said. "After going so far in the tournament and having that pressure, now we have to keep it up, because every team is targeting us and wanting to beat us."

Stawicki also enjoys playing with his two good friends.

"It's awesome," Stawicki said. "We all know how each other play and what runs we makes. We know where each of us will be at. If one of us is feeling down, we pick each other up. We're like a family. (Christian) is a great player. I've learned a lot from him. He's an amazing finisher. He's made me a better player."

Stawicki is more focused than ever. He has his team's goals on his mind.

"As a team, we want to win conference, win the OAC tournament, make it to the final four and win the whole thing," Stawicki said. "Personally, I want to get better, score my goals, get more assists and just do my part to help the team."

Mazzone, a junior midfielder whose played in 12 games this season, is also focused on helping his team.

"I'd rather win than anything," Mazzone said. "Our biggest goal is to win the national tournament."

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Stawicki heads the ball last Tuesday.

A pair of Wellington Dukes’ graduates, Greg Stawicki and Christian Huelsman, helped lead Ohio Northern's soccer team to a record-breaking weekend by defeating Trine (Ind.) 3-0 Saturday afternoon and Kalamazoo (Michigan) 7-0 on Friday, to win its fifth OAC-MIAA Shootout.

On Saturday, Huelsman sent one into the back of the net for his fifth goal of the season to give ONU a 1-0 lead at the 29:27 mark.

Shortly after that at the 35:50 mark, Stawicki beat the keeper one-on-one to score a goal and give the Polar Bears a 2-0 lead and then added an insurance goal when he beat the goalkeeper at the top of the box and tapped the ball into an empty goal for his fourth goal of the season.

On Friday night, Huelsman beat the goal keeper high for a goal at the 51:19 mark to push the Polar Bears to a 4-0 advantage.

Stawicki also added a goal at the 80:26 mark for his third goal in a three-game span.

Stawicki had scored Ohio Northern’s game-winning goal against Wittenberg, as the Polar Bears won it’s third-straight home-opener Tuesday afternoon 1-0 at the ONU Soccer Field.

The game was scoreless until the 39:29 mark of the first half when sophomore Abrim Mueller crossed the ball into Stawicki, who shot the ball and had it blocked. Stawicki then followed his own rebound and hit the ball to the upper half of the net for the goal.

Ohio Northern (5-3-1), who just had its three-game losing streak snapped to Ohio Wesleyan on Wednesday, will host Defiance this Tuesday.

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Wellington’s Christian Huelsman has helped the No. 11th ranked Ohio Northern men's soccer team get off to a 2-0 start.

In a 7-0 victory over Bridgewater (Va.) in the Roanoke Tournament Friday night, Huelsman scored a goal and assisted on two others.

Last week in the season opener, Huelsman scored a goal in a 2-0 victory at Manchester (Ind.).

Huelsman scored on a penalty kick with 1:05 left in the first half to break a scoreless tie and send the Polar Bears into intermission with a 1-0 lead.

Last year in his freshman season, Huelsman started all 27 games and led the Polar Bears with 18 goals and eight assists. He also helped lead Ohio Northern to its first-ever trip to the elite-8 in the NCAA tournament.

Huelsman and the Polar Bears finished the season with an impressive 20-6-1 record and defeated Marietta, 3-0 in the finals to qualify for the NCAA tournament.

In the first round of the playoffs, they defeated Wheaton (Illinois), 4-1 and in second round action they beat Carroll (Wisconsin), 2-1 in two overtimes, and got by previously unbeaten Hobart (New York), 2-1 to make it to the Elite-8 for the first time in school history. A 4-1 loss to Loras (Iowa) ended their dreams of a Final Four and a national championship.

Huelsman broke the school-record for most goals by a freshman, while being selected first-team All-Ohio Athletic Conference, along with second team All-GLIAC.

Huelsman was originally a ball boy on Wellington’s soccer team before, stamping a legacy as a player by becoming the all-time leading scorer in Dukes’ history.

swalker@MorningJournal.com