By Liz North
Monumental moments brought the boys' varsity soccer season to a close. Centerville no longer had to settle for second best. The team had captured the State Title after years of struggle.
At the beginning of the season Coach Gary Avedikian felt the team was playing in a disruptive manner."
If we had been concentrating, "said Avedikian in September," "we would not have given up one goal. "At this time Avedikian felt game play was "inconsistent and disruptive."
In October, Avedikian decided to have his players compete for starting positions. He brought up members from the "A" team to try out with varsity. "We have 26 good players who are capable of winning, "said Avedikian. "We're supposed to be putting out the best."
From that moment on game play became more "intense and aggressive." Most goal s against Centerville were scored when corner kicks, goal kicks, and free kicks occurred. Avedikian feels this was due to lack of concentration.
| Highlights of the season
included the 22-0 game against Springfield North in which the team set a record for most
goals scored in a game. Dave Kindercline tied Brian Kohen's 1982 record of most goals
scored in a game by an individual. He scored six of the nine goals against Upper Arlington
on the season opener. The Elks have made six trips to the semi-finals in the last 12 years. |
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The Centerville-North Olmsted game was the third time Centerville has appeared in the finals in the last four years. "We've been so close so many times but couldn't pull it off, "said Avedikian.
Centerville dominated the remaining minutes. North Olmsted was outshot 21-13 in front of 6000 fans at Westerville South High School. "I've never been so proud of my school, "said varsity cheerleader Michelle Lombard. "This is such an overwhelming feeling."
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The team's early inconsistency became less
acknowledgable as the season progressed. "Our goal wasn't to peak early, "said
midfielder Sam Johnson, "it was to peak by tournament time." Many players felt as Johnson did that tournament time was the moment when the Elks pulled together as a team. "I don't think we pulled together until the first game of the tournament, "said defender Rick Hoback. "I don't think that during the season we wanted to win so bad but during the tournament we knew we were playing for keeps." |
Early in the season Todd Young found a rubber chicken, similar to those purchased in a practical joke shop, and introduced it to the team. It soon found a home in an old cut out soccer ball and in the hearts of the team. "The chicken brought us together with the idea of winning State, "said Avedikian.
The amount of magic that any good luck piece can hold is nothing compared to the magic a winning team possesses. The Centerville Elks captured the State Title not with luck, but with their own magic intensity and desire. 'This monumental season will be remembered for years to come.
Numbers dictated that Elks be champs
By Dave Long, Staff Sports Writer
| One of the reasons Centerville
won the Ohio boys Class AAA high school soccer championship Saturday was that the numbers
were right. Not just the 2-1 score in overtime to beat previously undefeated North
Olmsted. All the other numbers were in place. It was Centerville's third time in the
finals in four years and Coach Gary Avedikian had said all week that the third time would
be the charm. The two-year cycle was also in place. Dayton teams have won state soccer titles every two years. Northmont started it, winning the AAA title in 1978. Carroll won the A-AA in 1980 and Chaminade-Julienne was the A. AA winner in 1982. This is 1984, so some area team obviously had a state championship trophy waiting for It. "The only numbers I knew about were that we had lost in two state finals," Avedikian said. "This team didn't want It to happen again. They really grew up at the end of the season and played the way they knew they could." There were 11 juniors and one sophomore on the roster of this state title team, which makes things look strong again next season for the Elks, who finished with a 20-2-3 record and 18 straight games without a loss. "At the beginning of the season we played outstanding soccer," Avedikian said. "Then we sort of fell into a lazy period where we were winning on talent and better basic skills than our opponents and luck in some cases. "'We just couldn't put three good games together. So the coaching staff sat down and decided we had been better when our competition had been keener to make the squad. So before the tournament we brought up six players off the A team, and every game everyone was fighting for a position on the team. It made us a lot sharper and brought the team together as a unit. "No one could afford to sit back. They had to push hard in practice and the games and that made the difference. This was the youngest team I've ever had here and it grew up at the right time." |
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Elks capture state after years of frustration
By Dave Lamb, staff writer
If the Centerville Elks thought they were simply playing for themselves in the Class AAA state soccer final against North Olmsted on Saturday, that notion was quickly dispelled after earning a 2-1 overtime win at Westerville South High School. From watching the outpour of hugging and crying by the fans on the field after the game, the Elks had to realize the burden they had successfully lifted from the Centerville soccer program by winning its first state championship. Among the people letting their emotion run rampant were former players and families from Centerville teams that came just one or two steps short. This was Centerville’s third time in the final in the last four years and the sixth time in 12 years the Elks reached at least the semifinals.
| "For the first
couple of seconds." said Elk coach Gary Avedikian, "I thought, My God, this is
really happening." Then all the friends and old players, some of them from ’73,
who had been through so much, cam rushing out of the stands. Everyone was, hugging. It was
such a thrill to know everyone wanted it. They finally earned the title after fullback Scott Decuir rushed in to knock in a rebound of a long shot by Kevin Kohen less than three minutes into the 10-minute overtime period and the Elks held off the Eagles for the final seven minutes. Centerville’s Gregg Harlow and North Olmsted's Tom O’Roarke exchanged second-quarter goals to force the overtime. Decuir scoring the winning goad seemed appropriate, He and fellow captain Phil Wafford were the final links to the 1982 team, perhaps Centerville’s greatest ever. |
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'It was so great Scott got the goal," Wafford told Avedikian, "We were the last link to the ’82 team. They were a great team. They should’ve won."
"Phil said something great," said Avedikian. It was really touching, the feeling they were doing it for the '’82 team. They had never said anything like that before."
Ironically, Decuir's, goal gave the Elks 114 for the year to tie the ‘82 team for a school record. Both teams also finished with 15 shutouts. This years squad finished the year with a 19-game unbeaten streak, one short of the school record set in ’82 when the Elks were unbeaten before losing to Stow Walsh Jesuit in a shootout.
Decuir’s opportunity was set up by Kohen, the senior halfback, who volleyed a 40-yard shot that nearly everyone seemed to think was sailing over the goal.
"I’m sure the defender thought it was going over," said Avedikian "But Kevin Kohen’s ball, every time has a tremendous topspin on it."
North Olmsted goalkeeper Mark Fege then showed what Centerville assistant coach Scott Moorefield had been telling Avedikian. "He told me the goalkeeper didn't handle high balls correctly, even in warmups," said the Elk coach.
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Fege tried to tip the ball over
the crossbar, but he didn't get a solid piece of it. The ball straight up and headed
downward near the right post. With everyone else frozen on the play, Decuir burst through the middle to knock the rebound in the goal from a couple feet away before Fege could recover. "I knew Kevin was going to shoot," said Decuir. "I was making a run and I just kept going. I was hoping something like that would happen." |
It was the seventh goal of the year for Decuir, who also scored the winning goal against Forest park in the sectional final.
Centerville finished the year at 20-2-3, while North Olmsted fell to 20-1-3.
Jinx is over: Elk booters state champs
By Dave Long
Staff Sports Writer
WESTERVILLE - No longer will Centerville soccer be referred to as the best program in the Ohio until it has to play in the state tournament. The veil of frustration has been lifted. The choker chain has been broken.
Centerville finally won an Ohio state boys Class AAA championship with a 2-1 overtime win over North Olmsted. It was a long time coming - six trips to the semifinals in the last 12 years and this game - the third appearance in the title game in the last four years.
But Scott Decuir's tip in of a 35-yard shot by Kevin Kohen with 7:22 to go in overtime was the difference for the Elks as the handed North Olmsted their first loss of the year. Centerville ends the happy season 20-2-3 while North Olmsted, from suburban Cleveland, finished at 20-1-2.
Centerville coach Gary Avedikian was overcome by the emotion of the moment. This was his first state title in 22 years of high school coaching. During 12 years of prep coaching in Connecticut his teams were in the state semis six times, the state finals twice and came, away with nothing. His Centerville teams, which have dominated Dayton high school soccer for a decade, reached. the semis in 1974, '76, '77, '81, '82 and '83. They lost in the finals in '81 to Brecksville and in '82 to Stow Walsh Jesuit in a shoot-out. "It's been a long, long, long time coming," Avedikian said fighting back the tears of joy. "You don't know how much this means to me. I put this right up there with the happiest days of my life - the day I got married and the days my children were born.
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"We've been so close so many times but
couldn't pull it off. We've been successful in so many ways but couldn't quite break
through. But now we've finally won the state title. It's a feeling I can't de- scribe
right now and I don't think can ever be matched." Centerville dominated play the
entire game at Westerville South High School before 6,000 fans. The Elks outshot North
Olmsted, 21-13, for the game and 9-1 in the fourth period but couldn't get the needed goal
to avoid the overtime. Ohio high school soccer has three stages of overtime. The first is a full 10-minute regulation. The second is a sudden death 10-minute period where the first goal wins and the third stage is penalty kicks where players go one-on-one against the goalie. |
In Centerville's championship win, Kohen put a shot on goal from the 35 yards out that didn't appear to have a chance of staying in play. "I thought it was going to go over the cross bar," Decuir, a senior, said. "But I was going to be there just in case It didn't." The ball just caught the top of the cross bar and fell down in front of the goal. North Olmsted goalie Mark Fege ,also thought it was going to fly over the top and was out of position. "It hit the cross bar and came straight down," Decuir said. "The goalie was- out of position and I just tapped it in before he could get to the ball." Kohen, also a senior, wasn't sure If the shot had a chance. "The coach just told us to keep shooting. I had the., opening and took it. I thought it was going to go over the net, but it began to die. I didn't even see Scotty there until he had put the ball in."
There were no team meetings saying win this one for the coach, but all the Centerville players knew Avedikian's desire to have a state champion. "We all wanted to win it because we've been so close before," Decuir said. "No one really had to say anything. We knew what we had to do. This feels great. Just great." Centerville took a 1-0 lead with 17-,04 to go in the second quarter on Gregg Harlow's goal off a corner kick from Kohen. The ball hooked from the comer out front. Harlow took it on the left of the goal and shot with the ball going. right to left into the upper left hand comer. The lead didn't last long as North Olmsted's Tom O'Rourke scored at 14:24 off a scramble in front of the Centerville goal. North Olmsted got no closer to scoring the rest of the day as the Centerville midfielders kept things under control. But the Elks couldn't find the net in regular time either.
This is so sweet," Kohen said. "We're the state champions. The state champs."
Special thanks to Patrick Ryan for providing all the
information for this page!!
Articles reprinted with permission from The Dayton Daily News and the
Centerville-Bellbrook Times