2005-NOV-06
By Dave Long for the Dayton Daily News
HAMILTON | Centerville suffered a loss of historical significance Saturday afternoon in the Region 4 final of the Division I girls high school soccer tournament.
The school has had soccer since 1983 and played a total 429 games — 339 wins, 55 losses, 35 ties.
Loss No. 56, a dominating 6-0 performance by Cincinnati St. Ursula at the Hamilton Soccer Stadium, was the worst in the proud history of the program.
And it could have been worse. On this sunny afternoon, St. Ursula was superior in every phase of the game. Ranked No. 2 in the state poll, it will take a 19-1-2 record into the state semifinals against Dublin Coffman (14-3-4) Wednesday. Coffman defeated Pickerington North, 3-0, in the Region 3 final.
Centerville finished with a 17-3-2 record, making its first regional final appearance since 1998 when it lost to St. Ursula in a penalty-kick shootout.
"We're not a bad team, but obviously we were no match for them today," said Don Skelton who has coached the Elks for 23 years. "They were extremely physicall and aggressive and never gave us a chance to get anything going.
"I felt really good when it was 1-0 at halftime. I felt like we were still in it even though they dominated play. Then bang, bang, bang and it was over."
St. Ursula led 1-0 at the break after forward Angela Napolitano, Cincinnati's player of the year, bent it like Beckham, curving a right-to-left corner kick into the net just inside the far post.
That 1-0 lead expanded to 4-0 quickly with St. Ursula scoring three goals in the first six minutes into the second half, two of them 41 seconds apart.
For the match Centerville was unofficially outshot 33-5. St. Ursula has outscored opponents 24-0 in tournament play. During the first 60 minutes of play, Centerville had less than five minutes total of sustained offensive pressure and only one solid scoring opportunity off a corner kick.
"I never expected us to thoroughly dominate a great program like Centerville," St. Ursula coach Danielle Newman said. "But we were getting to every loose ball before they did, won every ball in the air and never let them connect more than two passes. We really played well."
Hamilton Badin 2, Spg Northwestern 1
Heather Rains split three defenders to score the winning goal with 23:09 remaining. Badin, the No. 1 ranked Division II team in the state, stopped No. 8 Northwestern in the D-II, Region 8 final at Princeton.
Badin (16-3-2) plays No. 7 Columbus Bexley in the state semifinals Wednesday in Fairborn. Jenna Cooper scored for Northwestern.
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