St. Ignatius ends Wooster's playoff run, but the Generals plan to be back

BRUNSWICK — Eighty minutes of soccer did not go Wooster's way. The scoreboard wasn't kind to the Generals.

And yet, they huddled at midfield long after the final whistle, smiling and laughing all the same.

National high school soccer powerhouse St. Ignatius proved to be too much for Wooster, taking control early and never relinquishing it in a 6-0 victory in the Division I regional semifinals.

"The soccer was good on both sides," Wooster coach J.P. Lytle said. "They play quick. They play technical soccer. All of their players have high IQ."

The Wildcats did all of that and more, moving the ball swiftly from player to player, and eventually into Wooster's goal. Ignatius scored twice in the opening 10 minutes and opened up a 5-0 lead by halftime, effectively ending the game before the second half began.

Ignatius' six goals came from three players: Zsombor Onodi (three goals), Nolan Spicer (two goals) and Owen Sullivan (one goal). Onodi is committed to play soccer at Ohio State, Spicer to Notre Dame and Sullivan to Penn. And those are just a few of the future Div. I college players on the Wildcats' roster.

"The way they move the ball and their awareness, it's really fantastic to see," Wooster's Luigi Canas said in admiration of Onodi and Spicer in particular.

Ignatius is a different level of program. It has won the Div. I state championship eight times since 2010 (11 times overall) and has a very good chance to make it nine this year. It has owned the sport like few programs have owned any OHSAA sport during that same time frame. Ignatius is the standard, and Wooster found out it still has a way to go before it reaches that standard.

"You see the next level," Canas said. "You have a new stride to aim for. Being on the same field as them, you know what to work for now. For each one of us, we can aim for ourselves and for our team."

But the Generals are closer than they've been in a long time.

Was the loss painful for the Generals? Definitely.

Losing in the tournament always stings, and especially so for a team so stocked with seniors who played for the final time as Wooster Generals Wednesday night. And yet, they left the field galvanized, even after a six-goal defeat, knowing they accomplished something only a select few have ever accomplished while wearing Wooster uniforms.

Canas gave one of the most stirring speeches in the middle of that emotional postgame huddle, which lasted almost 20 minutes after game's conclusion.

"In 30 years, we're going to look back and realize how good we were," Canas said while looking at surrounding him. "We set the bar."

Indeed, these Generals set a new bar, becoming the first team in 34 years to play a regional game. But the plan isn't to wait another 34 more years for this kind of success. This is where the program believes it belongs now.

"We set the bar higher than any other team before us, and it's going to stay there," Canas said. "Playing against a team like St. Ignatius is a blessing. We've never played Ignatius before. It's a milestone. It's beautiful."

Still, the Generals owe a lot of success to a talented and deep senior class that won't be around for the future — a class that will be almost impossible to replace.

"It's one of those things, you can never replace them," Canas said. "But every year, you structure your team around the assets you have. Next year, we'll have to build it around what strengths we have and rebuild it like we did this year."

Lytle showed his admiration for his seniors after the game, repeatedly crediting them for the success of this year's team. The class featuring Griffin Owen, Hunter Kuenzli, Simon Schonfeld, Brody Schultz, Sebastian De la Fuente Orozco, Brendan French, Alex Navarro, Jacob Russell and Erick Martinez left a huge imprint on Wooster soccer.

"They haven't exactly grown up together for so long," Lytle said. "They've just jelled together and love being around each other so much. Being able to do that and come together so quickly, that's just their personalities. They (decided), 'If we want to be good in soccer, we have to do it together.' They showed us what a family is."

Wooster soccer still isn't quite where it wants to be. It wants to be able to compete with teams like Ignatius, not just act as bumps along the road late in the tournament for them.

If that does indeed happen, they can look back at the 2022 team as the team that ushered in a new standard altogether.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Boys Soccer: St. Ignatius routs Wooster 6-0