Perrysburg junior midfielder Adyson Brown (8) keeps possession away from Dublin Jerome senior forward Natalie Hoover (29) in the Yellow Jackets’ 2-0 win Tuesday. (Photo by Lisa Sadowski)
SUNBURY, Ohio — Perrysburg forwards Camille Francis and Emma Ogdahl have been playing soccer together a long time— even before they were the offensive weapons for the Yellow Jackets.
The two Perrysburg juniors each scored a first half goal in leading the Yellow Jackets to a 2-0 Division I regional semifinal victory over previously unbeaten Dubin Jerome at Big Walnut High School Tuesday.
Francis got the Yellow Jackets on the board with 18:33 remaining in the opening half on a dish from sophomore defender Lauren McConnachie.
“Lauren played it up to me, and I kind of made a move and got it in the right side,” Francis said.
Four minutes and 12 seconds later, Francis found Ogdahl, who beat two defenders and then beat Jerome junior goalkeeper Haydyn Stoner, who was caught out of position, to score. Ogdahl credits Francis for seeing her on the outside flank.
“Camille played me a great ball through and I think it’s kind of weird because we’ve been playing with each other so long we know how the other one plays, so I think we can connect together,” Ogdahl said. “Camille tried to dribble inside and if I made the run around, she could see the gap because she is a very smart player.”
Ogdahl leads the team with 52 points on 21 goals and 10 assists, while Francis is third with 35 points on 14 goals and seven assists.
It was a feat for Perrysburg to score twice on the Celtics, a team that has only given up four goals all season, and only two goals in one game once — during a 2-2 tie with Dublin Coffman, Perrysburg’s next opponent. The Celtics had shut out 14 of their previous 18 opponents.
However, when Ogdahl, Francis, or Perrysburg’s second highest scorer, junior midfielder Sophie Mitchell (16 goals, 11 assists) gets the ball in the opponents’ defensive zone, it’s hard to stop.
“That’s normally what happens. They have the speed,” Perrysburg coach Jorge Diaz said. “They (Jerome) have incredible defense. They didn’t allow that many goals over the season — to score two goals on them the way that we did, we were blessed.”
But it was also Perrysburg’s defense that stood tall. Jerome outshot Perrysburg, 20-12, but many were long desperate shots in the second half, and the Celtics had just a 10-7 advantage in shots on goal.
Perrysburg sophomore goalkeeper Tori Trzcinski stopped all 10 shots for her clean sheet, and fortunately for the Jackets, one second half shot ricocheted off the post.
“Tori is my MVP, but (senior midfielder) Grace (Langendonk) holding the middle, and my outside backs, kudos to them. They played an incredible game,” Diaz said.
“We knew they were going to come for us, and we got lucky at times where the goalie was at the right place, but that is what soccer is all about. We put the ball in the net, they didn’t, and we won.”
Francis says without Trzcinski and her defense, the shutout doesn’t happen, or maybe even the win doesn’t happen.
“I think our defense played amazingly. I mean, every single ball they won,” Francis said. “Tori was amazing — she made saves, and saved us on one of them that I thought was going in. She’s a great goalie.”
Ogdahl says one of the reasons Perrysburg may be peaking now is the offense and defense playing against each other every day in practice.
“Honestly, a big part of our win, our goalkeeper, Tori, played incredible,” Ogdahl said. “She is always saving us. I’m so grateful to have such a great goalkeeper on my side.
“I think it all stems from practice,” Ogdahl continued. “I think it stems from the competition that we have to face every single day that makes us better, truly. Even though it is frustrating to go against such great defenders every single day, it makes me better and I hope that when the defenders go against us, we make them better as well.”
Perrysburg sends Jerome, ranked third in the state, packing with a 15-1-3 record.
“I think it’s super big. I mean, they are a great team,” Francis said. “I think we just showed up to the field and we worked our butts off.”
Ogdahl said it was good to see her team respond after a 3-1 district final win over Findlay last Saturday.
“We had a tough game against Findlay, didn’t play our best, but I think the most important thing tonight was to be able to bounce back and gain our confidence back,” Ogdahl said. “This game definitely spiked our confidence, so I think that we reached our goal and we are all really happy with our results.”
No. 10 Perrysburg, 14-4-1 moves on to play No. 7 Coffman (12-2-3) in a noon game Saturday at Marysville High School’s Impact Stadium with that winner headed to the state final four.
Diaz notes that Perrysburg’s losses have been to the top ranked teams in the state, or maybe the Yellow Jackets would still be undefeated, too.
“We have a very good team,” Diaz said. “We just had a couple of difficult opponents that made our record the way it is, otherwise, we would have had exactly the same record they did.
“We had (Cuyahoga Falls) Walsh (Jesuit), who is No. 1, we had Upper Arlington, No. 2, and Strongsville — everybody is alive among those teams. That’s what we do. We try to pick teams like that to be ready for these types of games.”
The Yellow Jackets’ losses were to Walsh Jesuit, 2-0, Upper Arlington, 4-1, Strongsville, 2-1, and Anthony Wayne, 3-2. The Jackets defeated AW in their second meeting, 3-1, and the Generals and Jackets ended up sharing the Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division title.
