ELYRIA — With a name like Zambo, you know he’s got to be good.
Orville, the home of Smucker’s jellies and Bobby Knight, sent its high school soccer team to town Tuesday night with one victory in 16 games.
Here, the Red Riders had the misfortune of running into Elyria Catholic’s boys and junior scoring leader Jimmy Zambo. They went home with the victory intact, but their season over with 16 losses.
The final score was 8-0 in a Brunswick Division II sectional tournament opener, during which Zambo scored six goals. Alex Miehls added two assists and goalkeeper Frank Sanabria recorded his eighth shutout of the season, second in a row and third in the last four games.
With the victory, EC (10-5-2) advances to a sectional final showdown with Akron Hoban at 5 p.m. Saturday on the Knights’ turf. Hoban knocked the Panthers out of the tournament last season, 3-2 in overtime, in a district semifinal. And the Knights nipped EC 1-0 in a regular-season encounter on Sept. 6 this year.
“We’ve been building momentum for the tournament,” said Miehls, a senior. “We’re trying to peak at the right time, which is obviously now.”
It was the third hat trick of the season for the junior Zambo and the fourth of his career. He recorded one as a sophomore. The Panthers also got goals from sophomore Joe Jovanovski, who also had an assist, and junior Patrick Avery.
“This was a game where we can work on specific things,” said Zambo, who was asked about the value to EC of a rout. “This is a like a stepping stone that can prepare us for other teams in the tournament.”
Orville, with four girls – one a starter — on the roster, didn’t get a shot off. The Panthers, meanwhile, got off 41, of which 20 were on target. Red Riders goalkeepers Kyle Likens and Jesse Menchaca took a pounding, making a half-dozen saves apiece.     Sanabria took a nap. He put his hands on the ball two or three times and got a punt away, but that was because of through-balls, not because of Orville shots. It was basically a night off for the sophomore.
“Once again, my defense let me get away with doing absolutely nothing,” Sanabria said. “It just shows how strong our defense is. But I’m glad that (Orville) didn’t give up. That shows tremendous heart on their part.’
EC coach Mike Wisnor was substituting liberally after the first 20 minutes, in the course of which the Panthers fired 19 shots at the Orville keepers, an even dozen on goal. The Red Riders’ starting keeper, junior Kyle Likens, was replaced by freshman Jesse Menchaca in the ninth minute when Likens aggravated a groin injury.
“We came out saying we have to work on getting the ball outside and get more work on crosses,” Wisnor said. “If you look at our goals, a good number of them were off crosses. That’s something we have not done well this year and we specifically came out here to work on that.”

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