West Holmes girls soccer wins program's first regional title

As Aveona Yoder lined up her shot, she saw an open net.

“I was a little scared for a second, but I just told myself to place it like (coach Schuyler Snyder) always tells me to,” Yoder said.

Yoder did just that, burying the shot into the back of the net to lift the West Holmes girls soccer team past Marietta 4-3 in double overtime in the Division II, Region 7 championship game at Bloom-Carroll High School on Nov. 4, sending her team to the state semifinals for the first time in program history.

“It was amazing (to score the goal), not just for me, but for the team, getting us to state and making history,” said Yoder, who entered the game with two goals this season.

Snyder said she had been picking on Yoder all season to shoot the ball more often.

“I always tell her, ‘You can’t score if you don’t shoot,’” Snyder said. “She did it when it mattered most. I guess I have to stop picking on her.”

Reaching state was a goal for West Holmes this season. That process started long before the season began.

“We’ve worked so hard for this,” senior Allie McMillen said. “We woke up at 6 a.m. for CrossFit every day this summer. We’ve done a lot of team bonding exercises and stuff like that. We’ve just worked really hard, and accomplishing (making state), there’s nothing like that.”

When McMillen and her five classmates — Avery Arnold, Josie Tish, Kali Woods, Natalie Rohr and Brianna Parks — were freshmen, West Holmes went through a challenging season and didn’t have many players in its program. The Lady Knights reached the district semis the following year and the district final last season.

McMillen credited Snyder for building up the program to get it to where it’s at now.

“I looked at my team after we caught that (win) there, and I said, ‘Girls, our freshmen year we won five games,’ which is insane,” McMillen said. “Our record now is 19-3 (after beating Marietta). It takes a long time, but it is worth it in the end. Schuyler has rebuilt this program so well. This strictly comes from her and her determination to do so. It just takes a lot of effort to get to where we have gotten.”

One of the keys to WH’s success this season has been the upperclassmen embracing younger players such as freshman Charli Murphy, who scored a team-high 43 goals this season.

“They’ve been really accepting (of me),” Murphy said. “They just want to win. They just want to do their best, and they’re just going to put in the work, and so am I.”

Murphy has had a much different experience as a freshman than McMillen and her classmates. If someone had told McMillen when she was a freshman that she’d be a regional champion when she was a senior, McMillen said she would have laughed in their face.

“Freshman year, we had what — 14 girls (in the program)?” McMillen said. “We were really low that year. It’s just incredible (to make state). This feeling is like no other.”

Yoder was one of many players who came up clutch for West Holmes, which had an answer each time the Lady Tigers (15-5-1) took the lead. Marietta held 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 leads, but Murphy, Arnold and McMillen each scored for the Lady Knights to pull them back to even.

McMillen’s game-tying goal came with just under nine minutes remaining in regulation.

“We were down all day,” Snyder said. “The kids did the work. They could have just as easily been done and let their season go, but they did the work and came back.”

The Lady Knights went on to lose 5-0 to Summit Country Day (19-1-3) in a state semifinal at Marysville High School on Nov. 7, ending their historic season with a 19-4 record and raising the bar for future teams.

“They wanted to (make state),” Snyder said following her team’s loss to SCD. “They got here. I think we’re going to see an influx in involvement in the youth program. We’ve got a great establishment there already. The stands were packed tonight. You don’t see that for girls soccer. You look at the stands, and it looks like a football match.

“I think the girls have earned a whole lot of respect tonight. I hope that they see that and feel that. Even after a loss, you turn around and look at the stands, and it’s a good feeling.”

This year’s senior class, which helped lead the Lady Knights to a school-record 19 wins this season, laid the foundation for future teams to know reaching state is achievable with hard work and a belief in a common goal.

“They’ve pushed themselves together for all four years of their high school careers,” Snyder said. “They’re the core of this group. They’re the backbone of this team. From our keeper box all the way up, they are the spine of this team.

“They will be greatly missed.”