FREMONT – The boys soccer team’s season-finale Monday night was less a contest and more of a victory lap.
And the Little Giants had plenty to celebrate.
Ross jumped all over Marion Harding early and often Monday night. Ross scored four goals in the first 20 minutes of the match and cruised to a 4-0 win over the Presidents.
The win not only sends Ross into its district tournament match Wednesday night riding a two-game win streak, but, by improving to 9-7 overall, also ensures the Little Giants will end the year with their first winning season in recent memory.
“No clue,” coach Alex Coressel said when asked when the last winning season was. “Sam (Durbin) and a couple others were asking tonight, ‘When was the last time we had a winning record?’ and we could not remember it. It actually dawned on Sam after the game we were going to have a winning record no matter what happens on Wednesday.”
The Little Giants have more than doubled their win total from last season’s record of 4-10-3, despite largely the same roster.
“It shows the improvement we made from last year because it’s not like we had a big change in our roster, we only graduated two guys off our roster and basically everybody was back,” Coressel said. “It’s been two years of hard work in the offseason to get ready and it’s paid off throughout the year.”
The only problem with Monday night’s match against the Presidents was the time. Marion Harding arrived late after having transportation difficulties, moving kickoff back nearly an hour from its scheduled 5 p.m. start time. As a result, darkness ended the game with about 25 minutes remaining in the second half.
But, with the game well in hand, and a couple Ross players under the weather and others battling nagging injury, the Little Giants didn’t mind preserving some of their energy for their district tournament opener Wednesday.
“We pulled those (starters) off, let a lot of the young guys play for almost the full 20 minutes of the first half,” Coressel said. “The second half we put people in all sorts of different spots and to give the seniors a send-off so we could pull them off the field one more time.”
Junior Dylan Brady opened the scoring about seven minutes into the game and scored again about a minute later. Senior Sam Durbin the scored a pair of goals within the next 10 minutes in the final home game of his career
Senior Mikey Contreras didn’t have a lot to do in goal, as the Presidents fired just three shots in his direction and he made one save. Brady played goal in the second half and also made one save.
With the regular season finished, Ross will travel to Ashland Wednesday in the first game of the district tournament at 5 p.m. With a victory, the Little Giants will advance to face the winner of Anthony Wayne and Tiffin Columbian next week at Findlay High School.
A tournament victory will also check off one of Ross’ major preseason goals: To win 10 games.
“The kids are extremely confident right now,” Coressel said. “They’re very happy with the way they played, with a lot of games in a short amount of time, finished pretty darn healthy and with pretty good results. They’re flying high and they’re ready to play a tournament game they think they can win. I know they can.”