Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Eastwood’s regular season didn’t live up to the program’s expectations last year, but the team made up for it with a thrilling run to the regional final for the fourth time over the past five seasons.
“We had our ups and downs throughout our regular season, specifically in league play,” fourth-year head coach Julie Cross said. “I know that the returners from last season, there's games that they want back, so I think focusing on our weekly milestones, whatever the next game is, or whatever we're doing the next day at practice is something that I think is going to be big for us to build off as we think about last year and how we can fix that for this year.”
The Eagles return all but two players — goalkeeper Jordan Jensen, who made 135 saves, and defender Riley Burtchin, who took the team’s corner kicks and provided one goal and three assists. Both of them were tabbed Second Team All-Northern Buckeye Conference.
“I think we will fill those roles, although we will miss those two players, especially as far as leadership goes,” Cross said. “I think Jordan and Riley did a tremendous job last year of leading, but I'm excited for this year's group, and I think we're already seeing great things this preseason.”
Cross is confident that her squad won’t miss a beat with Burtchin’s departure as several players rotated on the back line last year and gained good experience.
In terms of goalkeeping, though, it’s a bit different as Cross doesn’t typically rotate at that position. Junior Kaitlin Abbey got some decent experience as a freshman and saw a bit of time last year, making 16 saves.
“She got some experience her freshman year when Jordan was hurt,” Cross said. “She kind of got thrown into the fire right away, and she saw some time last year. She also played on the field a little bit, so she's pretty versatile and athletic.”
Beyond those two, Eastwood features a wealth of returning talent and production. They bring back an astounding 98.7 percent of last year’s 75 goals and 94 percent of their 67 assists.
Among them, three 15-plus goal scorers return — Karissa Nelson (16), Piper Sutton (15) and Karly Wasserman (15) — plus Lauren Schuerman produced 12 goals as a rookie.
Overall, the Eagles will see the return of their top eight scorers and nine of 10 players who scored last year. If that isn’t enough, 94.5 percent of the 219 shots they put on goal were from players on this year’s roster.
“I think when you have a good tournament run, you have that experience,” Cross said. “The winning part is fun, but I think the experience of being together and those extra weeks at the end of the season is special. Obviously, everybody who got to be a part of that last year … I think that they want that and more for this year.
“That's something that is mentioned or that I hear, but I also think there's a good balance between that kind of thinking and insight, but also focusing on the here and now. We also have the mindset that we have to get better every single day.”
Among those returners are six All-NBC players, including Sutton (first team) and Wasserman (second team), along with honorable mention selections — Schuerman, Ava Kachmarik, Karissa Nelson, and Kenna Nelson.
The Nelson sisters — Kenna is one of the team’s seven seniors and Karissa is a sophomore — are back together for one more season.
“Kenna plays more defensive,” Cross said. “She plays our defensive center mid role, so she plays kind of more towards the back, shuts things down and leads the defense. Karissa also plays center mid but plays more attacking-minded.”
Cross also mentioned Grace Meter and Kennedy Ameling as returning starters on the back line. Lexi Hoffman played defensive midfield and was typically the first one off the bench last year, specifically in the postseason run. Macy Shoemaker also played a similar key reserve role.
Cross said the team has been working on transitioning its defense into offensive opportunities this preseason.
“We have natural goal scorers,” she said. “The speed on our team is … it's crazy. Our track program, and our strength and conditioning program is amazing. If you lined up all the girls at Eastwood and had them all run sprints, I think 90 percent of the fastest girls are on the soccer team.
“We have that advantage, and I think we have people that are willing to shoot the ball, dribble and beat people, but I think the defensive side of things is what we've been kind of hitting hard - to win the ball when we lose it, win the ball back and then transition to offense because I think the goals and things will come from there when we don't allow the opportunities on our end.”
Eastwood also has some kids who were out injured on last year’s 10-9-3 team, but will play a role this year, such as Grace Abbey — Kaitlin’s older sister — and Josie Appelhans.
Cross said Appelhans is a phenomenal track athlete and one of the fastest girls in the school. She contributed as a freshman before getting injured during basketball season and missing her sophomore campaign.
“She started coming back and doing a little bit at the end of the season, but never got into games,” Cross said. “We never got to the point where we were comfortable putting her in a contact situation. And then she did indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring to kind of strengthen things. We're excited to have her back in the mix.”
With that abundance of talent, Cross is also excited as she will have one of the largest rosters in program history.
“One of the most exciting things for our program is that we have the numbers to have two separate teams,” Cross said. “There was one year that I was an assistant coach — probably six or seven years ago — that we maybe had close to that amount. We haven’t had that since I've been head coach.
“This year, we return all 23 (underclassmen), which I think also says a lot about the program as a whole and the experience they had last year. That's the first time I can think of in a little while, too, that we return every player from the previous season besides the graduating seniors. It’s pretty exciting.”
Eastwood opens its season at Edison on Aug. 18.
