Springfield Advances To Sectional Finals With 4-0 Win Over Clay
BY ANDREW ROWER — MIRROR SPORTS
Springfield sophomore midfielder Alex Lucio scored a pair of goals and assisted on another on Monday as the Blue Devils boys soccer team advanced to the sectional semifinals with a 4-0 win over Clay at Central Catholic.
Lucio gave Springfield a 2-0 lead in the game’s 30th minute and then came back 7:49 into the second half with a nice pass to senior midfielder/forward Jamie Fountain that resulted in a third Blue Devils goal.
Just 1:04 later, Lucio broke away from the Eagles defense before rolling a left-footed shot past Clay junior keeper Clay Vincent, who had come out of the goal to defend.
The Eagles tried desperately to cut into Springfield’s lead through the remaining 31 minutes, getting shot attempts from freshman forwards Gabe Mendoza and Jamey Burson, senior defender Clay Meyers and juniors Dean Shousher and Danny Klorer.
With the sizeable lead intact, though, Blue Devils defenders such as junior goalkeeper Alex Archambeau, classmate David Upham, sophomore Jalen Shorter and freshman Joe Yeager buckled down and helped Springfield hold on to the shutout.
Despite being a bit outmanned, Kenny Katschke’s Eagles began the match as the aggressors.
Clay’s offense put immediate pressure on the Blue Devils defense, but Shorter and teammates Jordan Drake and Zach Baker refused to let the Eagles break the early scoreless tie.
Then, about five minutes in, Drake switched gears a bit when he made a nice pass to freshman midfielder Nick Yeager, who gave Springfield a 1-0 lead with a 2-on-1 goal against Vincent.
Blue Devils defenders such as sophomore midfielder Devin Burns and junior Nate Gillette then joined Drake, Archambeau, Shorter, Baker and Joe Yeager in helping to keep Clay from answering before Lucio scored his first goal.
Springfield ended up edging the Eagles in the night’s shot department, 14-12, with Archambeau recording eight saves to Vincent’s five.
Nick Yeager led the Blue Devils with five attempts and Lucio made good on his only two.
Additional shots were taken by Baker, Burns, Fountain and Joe Yeager, as well as junior forward Corey Valerius, sophomores Andrew Case and Steven Gallagher and freshman defender Josh Siers.
Juniors Mitch Caris and Gaige Knauss and sophomores Tommy Kleinfelter, Eric Luce and Vince Lee also contributed to the win for coach Eric Swindel’s Springfield team.
Jamey Burson led Clay with three shots and both Mendoza and junior midfielder Alex Dempsey added two more.
The margin of victory might have been greater had it not been for solid defensive play by Meyers, fellow seniors Zach Soncrant and Cody Wisniewski and sophomore midfielder Jared Burson.
The 11-5 Blue Devils will next square off against the fourth-seeded St. Francis Knights in the sectional championship game at Central Catholic on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
SHS 2, Northview 0
Six days earlier, Springfield wrapped up its regular season by improving to 3-4 in the Northern Lakes League standings with a 2-0 win at Northview.
This time around, Drake and Kleinfelter scored the game’s only two goals in the Blue Devils shutout.

Kohl Taberner Leads Springfield At Conference Cross Country Meet
BY ANDREW ROWER — MIRROR SPORTS
Springfield sophomore Kohl Taberner earned second-team all-Northern Lakes League status last Saturday when he led the Blue Devils cross country team with a 14th-place finish at the conference’s tournament meet.
Taberner’s time of 17:14 allowed him to better 42 quality opponents and earn Springfield’s first all-league honors since Adam Rieger received honorable mention in 2008.
“To get second-team is a pretty big deal,” said Springfield coach Marty Perlaky. “It was tight. He had to run a very solid race in order to do that.”
Freshman Kyle Shively and junior Tyler Miller followed with personal-record times of 18:29 and 18:40, and senior Tommy Calderon and junior Scott Duncan added PR times of 19:08 and 19:14.
“I had three guys under 19:00 and two more that were right there,” Perlaky said. “They just completely ran out of their minds.”
In singling out his only senior boy to PR, Perlaky said, “To see how much Tommy has grown over four years is incredible.”
Senior Walter Bockert continued to battle nagging injuries for a respectable time of 19:19 and freshman Jake Reynolds rounded out the Blue Devils varsity race at 21:00.
Despite one of the best overall performances in school history, Springfield’s 187 points placed it eighth out of eight teams competing.
Northview edged Perrysburg for the top team spot, 55-58, Bowling Green placed third with 88 and Maumee took fourth at 98.
Along with the Blue Devils, the bottom four teams included Napoleon (123), Anthony Wayne (134) and Southview (159).
“We really do have a good team,” Perlaky said. “It’s the best team I’ve ever had.”
Individually, Napoleon senior Steven Weaver edged Maumee senior Willy Fink out of first by just four seconds at 15:46.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the boys or girls, it’s unbelievable the amount of talent that there is in this league,” Perlaky said.
Sophomore Ben Bucher led Springfield in the day’s open race with a 10th-place personal-record time of 18:52.
Additionally, sophomore Adam Whitehead and freshman Andrew Jacobs turned in times of 21:01 and 21:02, sophomore Lawrence Gardner finished with a PR time of 21:36 and senior Thaddeus Smith came across at 21:59.
“Lawrence had a very good race,” Perlaky said. “He PR’ed by a whole bunch. He’s a kid who, if we work on him in the winter, he could come back next year and run in the 18s in his first race.”
Junior Shae Grooms and freshman Derek Jacobs next finished with times of 22:17 and 22:40 (PR), freshman Hunter Kwapich ran a 28:14 and classmate Jameson Errington closed things out at 31:07.
Perlaky said his boys team is starting to see that it could have something special at Springfield over the next few years.
“I hope we keep that whole group of freshmen and sophomores because I think they’re all going to push each other for those Nos. 5, 6 and 7 spots next year,” he said.
Girls
As she has all year, sophomore Valerie Thigpen led Springfield’s girls team with a 42nd-place time of 21:55.
The time not only allowed her to better 13 competitors, but also set a new personal record for Thigpen.
The Blue Devils next trio finished in a tight pack as freshman Karina Zielinski, Kaitlynn Hersch and junior Sarah Duncan came across with PR times of 22:57, 23:35 and 23:44.
“It’s nice that Sarah finally got down to where she was running her sophomore year,” Perlaky said.
Junior Jamee Dewart and sophomores Samantha White and Hailey McDougle rounded out Springfield’s varsity race in another tight pack of times that included personal-record times of 25:44, 25:50 and 28:09.
“Sam had a very good PR for us,” Perlaky said.
The Blue Devils’ 239 points ended up placing them behind Southview (203), Maumee (125), Bowling Green (112), Perrysburg (100), Anthony Wayne (84), Napoleon (73) and first-place Northview (29).
Wildcats senior Alison Work led Northview to its championship with an individual first-place time of 18:48.
Springfield got another trio of PRs in the day’s open race as sophomore Emily Wood ran a 26:46, classmate Mariya Zhalkovsky turned in a 27:24 and freshman Kimmy Krogel finished at 30:27.
The Blue Devils will next compete at districts on Saturday at Pearson Park. The girls race will kick off at 2:00 p.m., with the boys following at 3:30 p.m.