Eagles pass test but fall to nationally-ranked St. Ignatius, 5-1

By Joe Magill

Avon boys soccer coach Chris Dore had something very specific in mind when he decided to add St. Ignatius to his team’s schedule this season.

The Wildcats are the gold standard of soccer in Ohio, having won six consecutive Division I state titles and 14 in the past 21 years. St. Ignatius also is garnering national attention as the No. 2-ranked squad in the country according to the most recent United Soccer Coaches poll. The Wildcats entered Monday’s match at Avon’s Westland Heating and Cooling + Plumbing Stadium with a 5-0 mark, having posted four consecutive shutouts and outscoring their five opponents 20-1.

“If you have high ambitions, you’ve got to test yourself against the best teams around, and year after year they’re clearly the best soccer program in the state of Ohio,” Dore said of scheduling St. Ignatius.

For the first 25 minutes of the match, the Eagles not only passed the test, they aced it. They were the dominant team and took a 1-0 lead on a London Carnie goal, the first time the visitors had trailed all season. However, the Wildcats used a scoring flurry late in the half to take control of the match, eventually earning a 5-1 victory to drop Avon to 4-2.

When asked what he saw from his team, Dore said, “That we can play with the best teams. But just because we can play for short spurts doesn’t mean that is automatically going to happen. I saw a lot of good things, but we have to be able to maintain a high level for 80 minutes if we want to go far. So, our ambition is to play how we did in the first 20-25 minutes of this game for longer spans of time, and then we’ll be able to accomplish good things.”

Avon sent a clear message early in the proceedings that this was not going to be a walk-over. Brock Harmon had two good scoring chances in the opening four minutes, sending one just wide of the goal just 2 minutes, 22 seconds into the match and then blasting a free kick that forced St. Ignatius goalkeeper Johnny Mulloy to go high to make a leaping save about 90 seconds later.

The Eagles finally got on the board with 25:52 left in the half as Carnie chipped a long shot over Mulloy’s head after the keeper wandered too far from the goal. Carnie won a 50-50 ball about 30 yards in front of the St. Ignatius goal, and when he looked up, he saw that Mulloy, his club teammate, had come out too far. So, he calmly chipped the ball over Mulloy’s head, igniting the boisterous Avon crowd.

“The first 20-25 minutes were absolutely fun,” said Dore. “Then it gets a little bit dicey.”

Eventually, the momentum swung the Wildcats’ way. First, a long shot banged off the far post of the Avon goal. Four minutes later, Ohio State commit Bryce Ince-Lovelace fired a shot low and right that Avon keeper Oliver Dobrovic got a hand on and then watched helplessly as the ball trickled into the goal.

When asked what turned around the game’s momentum, Dore said, “Their first goal. When a team like that scores, it starts to provide a little bit of doubt in your mind.”

Sure enough, less than 3 minutes later, Sam Trivosonno added a goal on a pretty give-and-go play with Ince-Lovelace. It was the first of two goals for Trivosonno, also an Ohio State commit. But the goal that really changed the match came with just 1:10 left in the half as Dom Ruggerio headed in a bouncing ball following a St. Ignatius corner kick.

“The goal at the very end of the half that we gave up on a corner kick, that was the backbreaker,” said Dore. “Going into the second half down 2-1 as opposed to down 3-1 is a lot different scenario.”

Avon had a few chances to score in the second half, but Mulloy was equal to the task, and the Wildcats added goals by Trivosonno and Cormac Kruchko to reach the final score.

“It’s a tough mountain to climb against an elite program that has kids coming from all over Northeast Ohio,” said Dore. “So, we’re proud of our kids and we’ll keep fighting. We’re going to break it down. We’re going to watch this film lots of times before we play against anybody else. There’s a lot to learn from this experience.”

Next on the schedule for the Eagles is a Southwestern Conference match Wednesday at Berea-Midpark.