By Greg Billing for the Dayton Daily News

If there's a darkhorse in the upcoming Division I soccer tournament, it's Troy.

The Trojans are a tough-luck team considering all four losses have come by one goal each, and considering who beat them. Troy lost by 2-1 scores to both Alter (ranked No. 2 in the area in D-II) and Fairmont (No. 2 in the area in D-I; No. 5 in state), and by 1-0 scores to Beavercreek (No. 7 in area) and Centerville (No. 1 in area; No. 2 in state).

Troy, ranked No. 6 in the area entering the week, has outscored opponents 26-9 but has only a 6-4 record.

Troy likely would have tied Fairmont had it not been for an unfortunate water break. With a player down on the field Troy came to the sidelines for drinks. But the down player soon got up and the officials put the ball in play. The result was an easy Fairmont score. Troy also held Centerville scoreless until 18 minutes left.

Senior Craig Parris and juniors Matt Ray and Aaron Denney have keyed the offense.

Rams-Irish rematch looms

Think Oct. 6 isn't circled on more than a few calendars in Clark and Greene counties The rematch pitting Greeneview and Springfield Catholic Central takes place on that date at Springfield. The Rams, ranked No. 2 in the state, attempt to sweep the season series against No. 7 Catholic Central.

The Rams won 3-1 on Sept. 20 to end Central's five-year undefeated run in the Ohio Heritage Conference. Greeneview's Ryan Hartman assisted on the first two Rams' goals and netted the third.

Catholic Central was No. 2 in the state entering that game.

Bees busy winning

After a loss to Milton-Union, Bethel boys soccer coach Bob Hamlin has to like how his team responded. The Bees haven't lost since that opening-season setback on Aug. 23. Bethel (8-1, 4-0 Cross County Conference) had won eight straight coming into this week. During that span, Bethel has outscored opponents 38-4 with four shutouts.

Making a state-ment

The Miami Valley continues to be well represented in the state poll. Centerville (No. 2) and Fairmont (No. 5) are ranked in D-I, Carroll tops the D-II poll and both Greeneview (No. 2) and Catholic Central (7) are ranked in D-III.

Carroll, which was the state poll champ last season, keeps chugging along. The Patriots were 10-0 entering Thursday's game with Stebbins having outscored opponents 72-3 with seven shutouts. Only Monroe, Lebanon and Cincinnati Anderson have scored on them. And no team has the past five games.

That scoring margin could be much worse, but Carroll has a tradition of calling off the attack at nine goals.

Getting his (penalty) kicks

That Urbana's Andrew Moore scored a hat trick recently isn't rare. How he did it is. In a 4-3 win over Miami East, Moore netted three goals on penalty kicks. The Vikings had two of their own, but failed to convert.

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