For people who have followed high school soccer in the area for a long time, the Division III sectional final between Lexington and Ashland on Saturday at Community Stadium felt a little like an old friend.
During the time when there were two divisions, the Minutemen and Arrows would often play each other in the title game. That stopped when the Ohio High School Athletic Association added a third class for boys soccer in the fall of 2000.
Lexington moved up to Division II, while Ashland stayed in Division I.
The teams had only played each other once in the playoffs since then. In 2007 and 2008, Lexington went up to Division I for two years. In 2008, they beat Ashland in the district semifinals.
This season, the OHSAA added five classes for boys’ soccer. In Division III, the teams that had played each other in the past were reunited. They played each other again in the playoffs on Saturday night, with Lex scoring the first goal in a 2-0 win.
“It seemed like a pipe dream when they first talked about adding five divisions.” The coach of Lexington, Peter Them, graduated from Lex in 2002 and played on teams that made it to the Division I and Division II playoffs. “I did not think it would ever happen,” they said.
“Once they figured it out, we were put in Division III with Madison and Ashland. I talked to Tim Lord (Madison coach) and Dustin Hosler (Ashland coach), and we all agreed that this is how postseason soccer in the area should be.”
“This is how things will go, and it will be fun.”
Hosler agreed.
“Before the game, Pete and I were trying to remember when Ashland and Lexington last played in the tournament. We thought it might have been when we played,” said Hosler, who graduated from Ashland in 1999 and was on the team that won the Division I title in 1998.
“He asked me when the last time was. I told him it was my senior year, not long ago.” It is great that Lexington will be in the tournament from now on. I am excited about that.
Both schools play in the Ohio Cardinal Conference and face off against each other during the regular season. The conference meeting this year was on September 10 and Lex won 2-0. After that, the teams went their separate ways.
After the Lex loss, Ashland was 7-1-1 and went on to win its last five games of the regular season. Lex was 4-5-1 after beating the Arrows, and they had just lost three games in a row, which was their first losing run since 2018.
In the 31st minute, Lexington (8-7-2) got the only goal it would need. The senior forward Will Perkins got a ball that the Arrows could not clear, turned, and smashed a left-footed shot past Ashland’s goalie Justin Pancake to make it 1-0.
“That great goal from Will made the first half pretty even.” “We know he is strong enough to do that,” Hosler said. “We did not clear the ball, it popped out to him, and he took advantage of it.”
Early in the second half, Ashland (8–7-2) seemed to tie the game when Grant Koleno shot past Lex keeper Trenton Reed while there was a scramble in front of the net. However, the goal was called off because Koleno was not onside.
Hosler said, “We did not think it was offsides, but we will have to look again.” “In the second half, we had more chances to score, but we could not finish.”
With 22:29 left in the second half, Lex scored an extra goal to make it 3-0. JayByx Mack took a free kick and sent it into the box. Cohen Lautzenhiser scored with a header, making the score 2-0.
“The last time we played them, we scored two headers from set pieces.” “They said, “We knew we had some height in there and could go up and attack the ball.” “Cohen went up and finished very well in the side pocket.”
The fifth-seeded Lex moves on to the Norwalk district tournament next week, where they will play No. 2 Sandusky Perkins in the district quarterfinal on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. Saturday, the Pirates beat seventh-seeded Mansfield Senior 2-1 in extra time.