Below are season previews for Wooster’s boys and girls
soccer teams.
Boys
Wooster has consistently been among the
better programs in the Ohio Cardinal Conference since the league was formed a
little more than two decades ago. That has been especially true over the past
decade.
The Generals last year finished 7-12-1 overall, 3-3 in the
OCC, which left them smack-dab in the middle of the seven-team league. Madison
won with a 6-0 record and advanced to the district finals.
Wooster had a modest postseason as the No. 33 seed among
Northeast Ohio Division III teams. The Generals upset No. 17 Painesville Harvey
in a sectional final, then beat No. 23 Kent Roosevelt 3-2 in a mild district
semifinal upset before falling in a double-overtime heartbreaker to No. 5
Westlake with a regional berth on the line.
Wooster has won four outright conference championships in
the past nine seasons, along with one shared title. The Generals, whose last
crown came in the 2022 season, have not gone more than two years without
winning the league since 2015. That streak is in jeopardy heading into this
season.
Among those lost to graduation were first-team All-OCC
performers Nicholas Morse and Michael Buchholz, second-teamer Dominic Ebin, and
honorable mention recipient Jake Rickett.
While three of the lost letter-winners earned conference
honors, there were only four letter-winners who did not come back. Leading the
returners are senior midfielder Calen Relle, a second-team All-OCC choice last
season, and senior forward/defender Tyler Hill, who received All-OCC honorable
mention.
Others back include seniors Jake Vermaaten
(midfield/defense), Eduardo Lopez (midfield/defense) and Jacob Galindo Benson
(midfield/forward); junior midfielder/defenders Avery Tyrell and Madden Turner;
and junior goalkeeper Sebastian Morse.
Also back after missing last season with an injury is
senior goalie Anthony Tarutani.
New this year are seniors Tommy Wilds (midfield) and Oliver
Lusrig (midfield), juniors Collin Fockler (defense/midfield) and Scott
Schonfeld (defense/midfield), and sophomores Joel French (defense/midfield),
Luis Lopez (defense/midfield) and Elimelie Perez (forward/midfield).
“We will have a similar group back as we lost four seniors,
but the lineup will look different on the field,” Generals coach JP Lytle said.
“Guys are playing in new spots, and the team will look for scoring as we lost a
majority of that from last year with graduation.”
Lytle said the amount of success his team has — or doesn’t
have — this season will depend on how quickly and smoothly the Generals adapt
to new positions and roles.
He said he expects their versatility to be a
strength, along with players successfully taking on new responsibilities.
He said other strengths will be the team’s work ethic and
the senior group of great leaders.
Girls
If momentum can carry from one year to the next, the 2025
soccer season could be pretty interesting for Wooster. The Generals certainly
took some mo’ into the offseason.
Wooster finished the 2024 season with a misleading 6-9-3
overall record. That included a 3-2-1 mark in the Ohio Cardinal Conference,
leaving the team in the middle of the conference standings. The Generals are
looking for their first OCC championship since 2014.
Wooster finished strong a year ago, going 4-1-1 over the
final portion of the regular season and losing just once in their last eight
regular-season contests. They outscored their opponents 21-7 over the second
half of the season. This all came following a 2-7 start.
An unfortunate tournament draw paired them with Revere in
Div. III tournament play, which resulted in a 6-1 loss. Because of the slow
start, Wooster went into the district tournament draw as the 33rd
seed. Revere was seeded 12th.
Coach Charles Cerniglia’s team only lost five letter-winners
from a year ago, but they won’t be easily replaced. Picking up the slack left
by the likes of scoring leader Gabi Signorino will be a core of half a dozen
seniors and juniors.
“We won’t have Gabi Signorino up top for us this
year, and that will be the biggest change,” Cerniglia said. “We lost four other
starters and key contributors as well, so there will be a lot of new faces and
some old faces in new positions.”
Back are seniors Kameah Lyons (goalkeeper),
Payton Garver (midfield), Brooke Ritchie (defense) and Abi Strand-Fox
(forward). Junior midfielders Ashlyn Thompson and Emma Behler also return.
Junior defenders Brooklyn Studer and Leighton
Kubb are the elders among the newcomers. Others include sophomore midfielders
SaraBeth Babulski and Alexis Llamas, along with freshmen Kenzlee Garver
(forward), Anna Behler (defense), Brynlee Edgar (forward) and Sydney Yoder
(midfielder).
Cerniglia said both ends of the field will play
key roles in determining the Generals’ success this year. On offense, until
someone establishes herself as a scoring threat, the team will need to
manufacture goals as a group effort, and likewise, the defense has some gelling
to do.
“Our team strength will need to be how we play
defense and how we work in coordinated efforts to manufacture goals,” Cerniglia
said. “We may have a harder time scoring goals this year, given the loss of
Gabi. We will hope to grow and improve
as the season progresses.”
The OCC was balanced last year, even though
Lexington won the title with a perfect 6-0 record. The Minutemen were below
.500 outside of the league. The Generals, for their part, easily could have
been runners-up with a bounce here or there in the first half of the campaign.
“I think the OCC will be solid and even this
year,” Cerniglia said. “I think the teams with the girls that want it the most
will be in the mix at the end.”
The Generals will learn a lot about themselves early,
starting the season at Medina Highland, the 2024 Div. III state runner-up.
