Boys regional soccer: Opponent not a big concern for confident Wellington team « The Chronicle-Telegram

Boys regional soccer: Opponent not a big concern for confident Wellington team

Filed by Bob Daniels November 3rd, 2009 in High School Sports, Sports.

WELLINGTON — As recently as 8:45 Monday night, no one knew who the Wellington boys would be playing tonight in their Division III regional semifinal in Twinsburg.

It turns out to be Rootstown, which defeated Waterloo, 2-1, in their district championship match postponed Saturday because of unplayable grounds. Top-seeded Rootstown was defeated by Waterloo in a regular-season match.

But what about the uncertain identity of an opponent? If you don’t know who your Tuesday night opponent is, how do you prepare during Monday afternoon soccer practice? Sounds daunting. Sounds as though you’re at a disadvantage.

The Dukes tri-captains didn’t think so after Monday’s practice. Their analysis was the opposite of pessimistic.

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“For myself, I’m kinda looking forward to it because they’re going to be at a disadvantage,” senior midfielder Ben Bogan said. “They’re not going to be practicing before the game and they’re going to be tired from playing a game late (Monday) night. It puts them in a negative situation and we have an advantage.”

“We don’t have time to prepare (for a specific team) and I guess that’s good, because we don’t overjudge them or underjudge them,” senior defender Brendan Rinehart said. “We’ll play our game, so it’s probably a good thing we don’t know who we’re playing yet. We work on stuff we don’t normally work on and we work on stuff that needs work.”

“We just have to be ready to go, whoever we play,” said senior tri-captain Kyle Bartolovich, center midfielder. “They’re just coming off a game, they’re going to be pumped from a win, so we gotta be ready to go right off the bat. We have to prepare for everything. Anything is possible.”

Wellington (16-2-1) plays tonight in its fifth regional in nine seasons, suggesting better-than-average success in reaching the Sweet 16. But the Dukes have been somewhat less successful playing at that level. In nine seasons, they’ve posted just one regional victory, 1-0 over Warren Champion in 2004.

By and large, their regional appearances have been futile and frustrating. They’ve scored just two regional-tournament goals — the other came in a 2-1 loss to Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in the ’04 regional final. And they’ve been outscored 9-2 in regional tournament play dating to 2001, when they were blanked, 2-0, by Mansfield Christian.

Nevertheless, Wellington entered this season with optimism and with their sights aimed high. Coach Bill Bogan and his Dukes talked openly about having the potential to reach the Final Four, something no Lorain County soccer team has ever done, boys or girls.

“We’ve still got that attitude,” Bartolovich said. “As long as we play our game and keep our heads in the game and come out strong, we should be able to go pretty far.”

Ben Bogan said some of the players are carefully studying potential opponents and their stats, just in case the Dukes advance even further into the postseason.

“We still think we can go to the Final Four this year,” Rinehart said.

The Dukes have lost only to Avon (3-0 on Sept. 12) and Aurora (4-0 on Oct. 5). Wellington and North Ridgeville tied, 2-2, on Sept. 19.

Bill Bogan said the uncertainty over the Dukes’ opponent has not affected the way he and assistant coach Dan Kulp have prepared the team for tonight’s match.

“One of the boys came out the other day and said, ‘Coach, we’re doing the same thing every day and it’s getting pretty boring,’” Bogan said. “My statement to him was, ‘When you learn a song on a piano, you play that song 40 or 50 or 500 times and then you’ve mastered it. Our practice has to be the same way.’

“You don’t change what got you there. You know, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ At this point, you have to keep improving on it and working at it. But you don’t need to make big changes.”

As for the Dukes’ potential to advance, Bogan said: “Our goal is to try to be a Final Four team. We’re in the Sweet 16, so we’re two games away from that. As the season went on, we thought that this is a goal we can truly attain. It’s truly a lofty goal. But the closer we get to it, it can become a reality if we play hard.”