Four area soccer teams advanced to the state semifinals this week, but only two earned a chance to play for a state title in Columbus this weekend.

The CVCA and Jackson boys teams won their respective state semifinal matchups and will vie for state championships.

CVCA defeated Napoleon 3-0 on Tuesday and advances to play Kettering Alter in a Division II state final at 11 a.m. at Crew Stadium in Columbus.

Jackson’s route to the state championship game was a bit more unconventional. The Polar Bears lost their regional final against Mentor in a shootout Saturday. However, Jackson learned Tuesday that Mentor had to forfeit that game because it used two ineligible players. Therefore, Jackson advanced to a state semifinal and took advantage of the rare opportunity by defeating Sylvania Northview 1-0 in overtime on Wednesday. The Polar Bears will play Hilliard Davidson in a Division I state final at 7 p.m. Friday.

KAREN SCHIELY/Akron Beacon Journal

CVCA senior Danny Thompson gets fired up after scoring a goal in the Royals’ 3-0 win over Napoleon in a Division II state semifinal.

The Walsh Jesuit and Archbishop Hoban girls teams both fell short of reaching a state championship game Wednesday night.

The defending state champion Warriors lost to nationally-ranked Strongsville in a shootout. Archbishop Hoban suffered defeat in a state semifinal for the second consecutive year when the Knights fell 2-1 to Hathaway Brown.

Click here for a Walsh girls game story.

Click here for a Hoban girls game story.

I will be in Columbus to cover the CVCA and Jackson boys in their state championship games. Stay tuned to this blog and the Beacon Journal for updates.

GIRLS SOCCER

DIVISION II REGIONAL SEMIFINAL
ARCHBISHOP HOBAN 1, FINDLAY LIBERTY-BENTON 0

Varsity Letters Player of the Game: Hoban sophomore forward Juliana Libertin.

Libertin scored the game’s only goal in the fifth minute to lift the Knights (14-3-1) over the previously undefeated Eagles (19-1-0). Libertin has scored seven goals of her 34 total goals in the postseason.

Hoban advances to play the winner of Genoa Area and Bryan in a regional final at noon Saturday at Findlay High School.

Click here to watch me and David Lee Morgan Jr. make our high school football picks in the Week 5 video of Gridlocks.

Click here to read a high school fooball notebook featuring St. Vincent-St. Mary’s win over Archbishop Hoban.

Click here for some high school football scouting reports for Week 5 games.

After a nine-year hiatus, the Shillelagh Trophy will finally return to Green St. after an exciting football game.

St. Vincent-St. Mary defeated Archbishop Hoban 33-28 Saturday night at the Rubber Bowl. St. V-M earned the traditional award given to the winner of the game by the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

The Summit County parochial rivals battled before a crowd estimated at 10,000. The Fighting Irish win snaps a nine-game winning streak the Knights held, and gives St. V-M their first win over Hoban since 1997.

St. V-M senior Carnell Evans played a major role in the game, scoring five rushing touchdowns, but also fumbling the ball three times.

The Fighting Irish (4-0) stopped a late Kinghts rally (1-3) to preserve the win, the first for coach Dan Boarman in the intense rivalry.

Evans scored three times in second half, but fumbled twice in the first quarter and once in the fourth quarter. The 5-foot-10, 205 pound tailback rushed for 214 yards on 15 carries.

Hoban junior Laymon Carter scored two touchdowns to help the Knights jump out to a 19-0 advantage in the first half.

The Fighting Irish lost three fumbles in the first half to aid the Knights quick start.

Hoban leads the all-time series 17-14 and is 10-2 since the series was renewed in 1996. Knights 14th-year coach is Ralph Orsini is now 10-2 against the Irish.

The Akron Beacon Journal will have a story on this game in Sunday’s newspaper.

KEN LOVE/Akron Beacon Journal

St. Vincent-St. Mary senior running back Carnell Evans celebrates after scoring a touchdown in the Irish’s 33-28 win over Archbishop Hoban.

The rivalry between Archbishop Hoban and St. Vincent-St. Mary continues at 7:30 Saturday at the Rubber Bowl when the two Summit County parochial schools meet on the football field.

The Knights have dominated the series with victories over the Fighting Irish the past nine seasons. Since the series was renewed in 1996, Hoban has won 10 of 11 and leads the all-time series 17-13.

Between 1978-1995 the rivals did not play football against each other because of a strong amount of tension and mutual consent. The rivalry was renewed in 1996 and has been one-sided. St. V-M led the series 12-7 when the schools played from 1959-1977. St. Vincent and St. Mary merged into one school in 1972.

St. V-M enters the game with a 3-0 record after defeating Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph, Clear Fork and Highland. Hoban is 1-2 following a win over Garfield and losses to Walsh Jesuit and Youngstown Cardinal Mooney.

Recent history favors Hoban, but St. V-M is currently the hot team. The Shillelagh Trophy has belonged to the blue and gold the past nine seasons. Can the green and gold earn it back?

Here are the scores between Hoban and St. V-M from 1996 to 2006, according to Beacon Journal records:

2006 Hoban 10-6
2005 Hoban 20-13
2004 Hoban 32-28
2003 Hoban 23-7
2002 Hoban 17-10
2001 Hoban 15-13
2000 Hoban 19-7
1999 Hoban 21-13
1998 Hoban 21-20
1997 St. V-M 21-13
1996 Hoban 24-0

So the question entering Saturday’s matchup is: Can Hoban make it 10 in a row over St. V-M?

Let us know what you think.

Working conditions are important to you on your job. So why shouldn’t they
be important to sports writers and radio and television comentators who cover
high school football?
There is no cry-baby in me here. Just a plea to have a place to work
that has nothing to do with creature comforts, but with having a proper place
to provide what in many ways is a service to local schools and fans.
To wit, Summit County has some of the worst press boxes I have ever seen.
Schools in Stark and Medina counties are far superior, top to bottom.
Rick Noland, a fine reporter for the Medina Gazette, mentioned the
deplorable press box at Hudson in one of his recent columns.
Media everywhere has learned the hard way that some Summit County press
boxes don’t even have THE bare minimum to work, ie., a phone line.
I have seen radio commentators have to string phone lines from the
concession stands in order to call the game.
Many schools understand the value of media coverage and have taken steps
to upgrade their facilities.
Believe it when I say that radio, television and newspaper people ignore
certain stadiums and schools
because it is easier to go elsewhere. Remember, every night there are many
games to cover.
It is also distressing because many of these substandard facilities are
among the best programs in the area.
I am not afraid to risk consternation by giving you my least favorite
places to cover games in Summit County. Alphabetically,
Archbishop Hoban
Copley
Cuyahoga Falls
Hudson
Nordonia
Tallmadge

Archbishop Hoban High School announced Monday that it has hired Scott Koenig as its new head baseball coach.

Koenig, who was an assistant coach at Firestone for the past six years, will replace former Knights coach Ted Guscoff. Guscoff, who was the head baseball coach at Hoban for five seasons, guided the Knights to the district tournament four times and the regional tournament once. He resigned from Hoban in July to take the head coaching job at Massillon.

Koenig, 46, is the president of Titan Transportation, an Akron-based trucking company. Koenig
is a 1979 graduate of Nordonia High School, where played center field for the baseball team.

“I’m excited about it,” Koenig said about getting his first head coaching job. “It’s going to be great to have my own program and institute a lot of things I learned about baseball and how to play the game. I’m looking forward to helping these kids take it to the next level.”

St. Vincent-St. Mary defeated Highland 31-0 to improve to 3-0. The Fighting Irish defense has not allowed any points this season. The Irish were scored upon in week one after a botched punt.

St. V-M juniors Harvie Tuck IV and Todd Culver have been key offensive players as a running back and receiver respectively, and senior quarterback Roger Wilson has been efficient.

Tuck and Culver have also been vital to the impressive defensive effort. Seniors Kevin Saunders, Andrew Destefano, Mike Schaeffer and Nick Thomas, and juniors Frank Laury, Garrett Wilcox, David Lee, Nate Nasrallah and Ben Birch round out the starting defensive unit.

“They have really been playing solid ball,” Irish defensive coordinator Mark Murphy said. “They have good chemistry and good unity. They do their jobs and execute very well. They fly around and hit people, and as a coach we love to see it.”

St. V-M plays rival Archbishop Hoban Saturday at the Rubber Bowl. Hoban has won nine consecutive games against St. V-M.

Is this the year the Irish break their losing streak?

Or do the Knights continue their winning streak and make it 10 years in a row?

What do you think?

PHIL MASTURZO/Akron Beacon Journal

Junior linebacker Harvie Tuck IV is one of the leaders of St. Vincent-St. Mary’s defense.

The blogger with the username “Blue Room Bum” asked a good question about Archbishop Hoban safety Will Fleming making a choice about college.

I talked to Hoban football coach Ralph Orsini and he confirmed that Fleming has received offers from the University of Akron and Hawaii. Orsini did not say that Fleming will become a Zip for sure but he indicated that it’s a strong possibility because Fleming’s father, Jim Fleming, is the defensive coordinator at UA. Orsini also said Fleming has a good relationship with Zips head coach J.D. Brookhart.

“Those two factors pretty much indicate that he could be leaning toward Akron,” Orsini said.

Fleming had 74 tackles, three interceptions and was a second-team all-district selection in Division II last season.

The “Blue Room Bum” also asked about Buchtel senior Johnny Adams’ college decision, Garfield senior Whitney Mercilous’ college decision and the food selection at the City Series Media Day. Actually, the media day isn’t until Tuesday, so I’ll answer those questions later.

Archbishop Hoban senior Will Fleming

The high school football season is almost here.

The first games of the 2007 season in the Beacon Journal’s coverage area are Garfield at Archbishop Hoban and Dover at Canton South. Both games are scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 23.

The Beacon Journal’s high school football preview section will be released on Aug. 22.
As the season approaches, I plan to post predictions each of the area leagues, players to watch and other football-related items.

If you have any questions about the upcoming football season (whether it’s about a team, player, coach, league, game or anything else), please feel free to leave a comment on this blog. I will reply.

Stay tuned for plenty of football material.