Philo, Weirich led respective teams to championships
Alan Miller Jewelers All-Press boys’ soccer Co-Players of the Year Bryant Philo of Lake and Phil Weirich of Oak Harbor led their respective teams to championships.
For Lake, it was a Division II sectional championship, and the season ended with a district final loss, but it marked the continuation of Lake being a perennial contender. Still, after five seasons of SLL play ending this year, Lake never managed to win a title.
Eastwood won the league title this year, its third, and Genoa also has three. The Eagles and Comets were co-champs in the first year the league sanctioned boys soccer, 2006.
Eastwood's 4-2 home win over Lake on Oct. 14 gave the Eagles the SLL title this season. The Flyers finished second.
But Lake, which finished 16-4, defeated Maumee 2-1 to win the sectional title, and the Panthers had just gotten done defeating Eastwood 1-0 in the tournament opener. Lake then defeated Oak Harbor 5-0 in the district semi-final, but the Flyers season ended with a loss to Lexington in the district final. Philo had 25 goals and 14 assists entering the district championship game.
For all-state attacker Phil Weirich, a unanimous choice for Sandusky Bay Conference Player of the Year, it was a record setting season. He finished his career setting a new school standard with 104 goals. In addition, his Rockets did win a league title. Weirich and first team All-Press midfielder Tyler Eoff combined for 53 goals and 30 assists.
Oak Harbor, which finished at 16-3, advanced to the district by defeating Port Clinton in its sectional final, 6-2. Weirich had three goals, Eoff two, and Ian Miller, an honorable mention All-Press choice, had one score against the Redskins.
They weren’t the only teams with successful seasons — Clay, which competes with Maumee Valley Country Day, Central Catholic, Toledo Christian, and Whitmer in the Northwest Ohio Scholastic Soccer League Division I, finished the conference season at 1-2-1
The Eagles defeated Central 3-1, but lost to TC 3-1 and MVCDS 5-1 and tied with Whitmer at 2-all. MVCDS won the division at 3-0-1. But three Eagles, Jake Bedra, Alex Dempsey, and Ben Rossler, are first team All-Press picks.
At Cardinal Stritch, a new team standard was set, and for that reason second-year coach Dave Skoczyn has been named All-Press Coach of the Year.
Skoczyn and his son, David, a Stritch assistant, had the Cardinals sitting at 12-3 and 6-2 in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference heading into the regular-season finale against Rossford.
Stritch finished second in the TAAC this season behind the state’s third-ranked Division III team, Ottawa Hills, a state semifinalist. Stritch never won more than eight games in a season prior to this year. The Cardinals' best finish was 8-8 in 2003, their first year as a varsity program.
“Stritch has been the kicking post for a lot of other soccer teams,” said Skoczyn, who was an assistant at Stritch for one year before becoming head coach. “When you came to play Stritch, we had the reputation we were going to lose. In the first two years we (coaches) were here, the other team would score and the kids would put their heads down and stop competing.”
In addition, iHigh.com announced that the Stritch soccer team had been honored as a weekly Powerade Complete Team. The team was selected on a basis of four team components — determination, preparation, hydration, and domination, The team will be awarded with $500 worth of Powerade gear.
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