Berkshire, Kirtland and West Geauga each won a girls’ soccer district championship on Thursday.
The Badgers defeated Hanoverton United, 4-1, while Kirtland beat Navarre Fairless, 7-1. West Geauga shut out host Streetsboro, 5-0.
Summer Larch, Jordyn Wichert, Allie Barcikoski and Brooke Ruchalski each scored for Berkshire while Larch, Wichert, and Evania McCandless all assisted on goals. Sarah Wendl recorded two saves in the win.
“We gave up an early PK off of a called handball inside our box while defending a corner,” Berkshire coach Ian Patterson said. “They took the 1-0 lead burying the shot in the bottom left corner about 10 minutes into the game. From that point forward, we picked up the pace, after what was already a hot start for us and we never looked back.”
Berkshire’s district title is the first in school history.
“It was a total team win tonight and it was very fitting for these seniors to win the first district title in school history since they were contributing freshmen on the team four years ago that made its first district final appearance,” Patterson said. “I’m excited to see what we can do in the next round riding this wave of confidence and almost having a sense of relief now that we got that monkey off our back.”
The Badgers, who improved to 12-5-2, will host South Range on Tuesday in a Division III regional semifinal.
Erika Zschuppe scored three goals and Aria Evans-Roskos and Leah LaVerde each punched in two to lead Kirtland to its fourth straight Division III district title and fifth in six years.
The Hornets, who improved to 15-1-3, will host Chippewa on Tuesday in the regional semifinals.
Since 2015, Kirtland is 97-22-10 overall with five district championships, two state runner-up finishes and two other appearances in the Final Four.
Kirtland is 28-5 in the postseason during that span and an impressive 56-7-3 against Division III competition. The Hornets are even more dominant against Division III public schools as they have won 48 of 52 games with two ties.
“At one time, someone said something to me in 2015, they said, ‘Wow, you got so close to making it to the state championship game and you didn’t get there and that’s your last chance,’” Bradac said. “That’s always stuck in my head and resonated with me. I felt like, ‘You don’t know us.’ That was just the beginning and we’ve proven that.”
Kirtland’s seniors also made history this week when the Hornets beat Elyria Catholic in the district semifinals. That was the 66th win for the Class of 2021, topping the 65 won by the class of 2019 and 2020.
West Geauga cruised to its district championship with a 5-0 win at top-seeded Streetsboro.
Nicola Ehrbar notched a hat trick and also assisted on two goals and Bailey Zanella and Frankee Flesher each scored once.
Holly Jeunnette and Shannon Swinerton each added an assist.
The Wolverines, who improved to 15-3, will host Revere in a Division II regional semifinal on Tuesday.
Chagrin Falls bowed out of the tournament in heartbreaking fashion.
The Tigers had converted a penalty kick to take a 1-0 lead over Lake Catholic but gave up the game-tying goal in the second half. After two scoreless overtime periods, Lake Catholic won the game in the second round of the shootout.
