COLUMBUS, Ohio – The dominance of St. Ignatius soccer in the state of Ohio keeps going, as the Wildcats won their fourth consecutive Division I state title with a 2-0 win over New Albany Saturday afternoon at Lower.com Field.
Owen Maruca scored the first goal of the game, as he headed in a goal with 23:33 left in the second half. The ball had been played into the box on a corner kick and was knocked around multiple times before Maruca powered it into the back of the net.
And then with time winding down, Owen Sullivan got a shot into the left side of the goal past New Albany goalkeeper Kyle Lapper to make it 2-0 with just 3:02 remaining.
St. Ignatius (21-2-0) didn’t need a lot of saves from goalkeeper Patrick McLaughlin, but he may have made the biggest stop of the game.
With the teams still tied 0-0 early in the second half, New Albany’s London Sears had a point-blank shot on goal, but McLaughlin was able to make the save to keep the game scoreless.
St. Ignatius was the aggressor for most of the game, and the numbers showed it at the end, as the Wildcats held a big advantage in shots (26-7) and shots on goal (11-2).
Zsombor Onodi led the Wildcats with seven shots (three on goal), Sullivan had five shots (four on goal) and Nathan Trickett also had five shots (one on goal). Maruca had three shots, with two on goal.
The loss was the first for New Albany (16-2-3) since their opening match of the season, a 1-0 defeat to the Olentangy Orange.
This is the first time a school has won four straight state championships in boys soccer, as St. Ignatius also won three in a row from 2014-16 and Cincinnati Summit Country Day did the same from 2016-17.
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