By Eric Frantz For the Dayton Daily News

There's a familiar face in the girls state soccer poll. Centerville, after a year absence, returned to the Division I rankings, debuting at No. 10 this week. The Elks were tied with Brecksville.

Centerville, No. 2 in the Miami Valley Scholastic Coaches Association, was 7-0-2 and had outscored the opposition 28-2.

Defensively, senior keeper Kelly Robie has registered seven shutouts. On offense, 15 players have tallied at least a point and 11 have goals. Senior Laura Kavanaugh is Centerville's top scorer with eight goals and three assists. Senior Ashley Vaughan has six goals.

The Elks travel to Greenon Saturday before facing Fairmont, Beavercreek and Alter in succession. They close the regular season with Xenia that could decide the Greater Western Ohio Conference East Division. Centerville is looking for its first D-I district title since 2002.

No love: Despite being 4-1-2 against Dayton-area competition, Northmont has climbed no higher than sixth in the MVSSCA D-I poll. After debuting seventh, Northmont has been sixth two weeks in a row.

Against teams ranked in front of them Northmont is 2-1-1 with wins over Xenia (4-1) and Wayne (1-0). The T-Bolts tied Centerville (0-0) and lost to Creek (3-1).

Overall Northmont is 4-3-2 with additional defeats to Dublin Scioto and Cincinnati Northwest. Creek coach Steve Popp isn't fooled by Northmont's near .500 record.

"I know they had two losses but both were to out-of-area teams from Cincinnati and Columbus," Popp said. "We know how good soccer is in those areas so we knew it would be a tough game (when we played)."

Northmont has a good opportunity to close the regular season with seven straight victories.

Greeneview leads OHC: A year removed from beating Springfield Catholic Central for the first time, Greeneview did it again Tuesday. The Rams' win also gave them the inside track for a second consecutive Ohio Heritage Conference crown.

Greeneview was 7-2 overall and 4-0 after beating SCC. The Rams' losses are to Xenia (1-0) and Springfield Northwestern (2-1), which is ranked No. 1 in the MVSSCA D-II poll. Greeneview is No. 6.

Finishing 14-3-2 last year, Greeneview lost just two players to graduation. This year the young Rams, with nine sophomores on varsity, are led by senior Ashley Amburgy and junior Rebecca Strickland. That duo combined for more than 40 goals last year. This season Strickland has a team-high 11 goals, while Amburgy has nine. Both have six assists.

View Article at DDN