Top team in state outlasts no. 5 Comets 1-0

Last night the Solon men’s soccer team took on the Wildcats of St. Ignatius. This match up was indeed one between two local powers; the Comets are ranked fifth in the state, while the Wildcats are ranked first. In the end Ignatius escaped a rowdy Stewart Field with a 1-0 win.

After a half an hour weather delay, the Comets took to the rain soaked turf against Ignatius and came out firing. Early in the game it seemed as if the Comets were the nationally ranked team as they immediately got two opportunities that could’ve very easily been goals. The first one came about five minutes into the game, when Steven Port fired a rocket towards the goal and missed right by about a foot. The second came roughly ten minutes in when the Comets’ high pressure defense caused an Ignatius turnover, but the Comets couldn’t quite capitalize as Jake Lynn narrowly missed high and hit the crossbar.

After these two opportunities it seemed as if the Comets awoke the sleeping beast, that is St. Ignatius. On a quick Wildcat attack, junior midfielder Riley Houde beautifully crossed the ball along the ground into the zone. Junior forward John Vrablic made a great run at the ball and scored it on a one-timer.

The rest of the first half was very back and forth, Solon never had anymore great opportunities because Ignatius started to look like the team everyone thought they were.  Going into halftime the score remained 1-0.

Will Schechter
Despite being down 1-0 at the half, for the majority of the period, the Comets looked like the better team.They were getting to more of the fifty-fifty balls and getting in their opponent’s face in the style of a team that was leaving it all out there.

The second half was a slightly different story. Ignatius started to use its height and that caused Solon to have a lot of trouble advancing the ball up the field. Solon was on the defensive end of the game for what felt like forever in the second half.

With about 15 minutes left in the game Ignatius got the best opportunity of the night. Senior midfielder Hayden Pavente shot a screamer along the ground. It looked like it was a sure goal, but Solon goalkeeper and Louisville soccer commit Will Meyer made a brilliant kick save, knocking it up and over the goal. The most impressive of his outstanding 13 saves.

Solon got one last chance. With six seconds on the clock, Ignatius committed a foul, resulting in a free kick from 70 yards outside of the goal. Meyer stepped up to take the free kick, while every other player on the field was crowding the Ignatius goal. Meyer kicked it high and far, but Ignatius immediately headed it out of the zone and the clock struck triple zeros.

On the night, total shots on goal favored Ignatius 24-10 and 15-6, respectively. Solon moves to 3-1-1 on the year and St. Ignatius moved to 5-0-0. Solon will take on North Olmsted in their next game this Saturday. St. Ignatius resumes play next Wednesday versus Kenston.