High school soccer: Buckeye boys come up short against Bay in GLC showdown

BAY VILLAGE — For the second straight year, the Buckeye boys soccer team brought itself to the cusp of winning a Great Lakes Conference championship, but Bay played the role of the gatekeeper. The Rockets got a first-half hat trick from senior Brock Pickett on the way to a 5-0 victory that completed a perfect GLC season for the Rockets. All five goals came in the first half. Bay has been the biggest roadblock for the Buckeye senior class. The Bucks have now lost 13 games in the past four seasons and five have come at the hands of the Rockets. "Obviously, Bay is a great team and has great players that work well together in the field," Buckeye senior Gavin Beck said. "We just didn't execute our game plan as well as we hoped we would. Hopefully, we can come out in the playoffs, face them again and execute better." The Rockets (11-1, 9-0) capitalized on three goals off restarts to jump to a 3-0 lead. Pickett scored on a free kick from about 22 yards out after Buckeye (10-3-2, 7-2) junior Nino Brunst picked up a yellow card just above the box to open the scoring. He added a penalty kick later in the half. Sandwiched between the two Pickett goals was a header by senior Ashton Price on a loose ball after an Ethan Jacobs corner kick. "It's about focus," Buckeye coach Andrew Coccia said. "If you're wasting even a second or two complaining about a call, good teams can do that to you. We've got to do a better job getting set and organized quicker." The 3-0 lead just a little more than halfway through the first half was more than enough for the top-ranked Division II team in the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association state poll. Pickett added a goal with 10 minutes left in the first half off a pass from junior Connor Bozak for his hat trick and the Rockets' third goal in a 10-minute span. He then assisted Price on his second goal of the first half. "Once they put one in, we slowed down and fell apart," Beck said. "I think they got into our heads, and we just can't let that happen." As tough as Bay was offensively, compiling 16 shots on goal and 15 corner kicks, the Rockets were even more formidable defensively, holding Buckeye to just one shot on goal and one corner kick in their fifth shutout of the Bucks over the past four years. "I think they lock down very well and it's hard to get past them," Buckeye senior Kaiden Whitford said. "It takes hard work and better mental execution." Whitford, who leads the Bucks with 13 goals this season, fired the lone shot on goal six minutes into the second half. As difficult as it was for Buckeye to lose the game and the chance at sharing the GLC title, Coccia said the team can learn valuable lessons on concentration and focus as it prepares to make a run in the D-II tournament, which begins with a sectional final home contest against Cloverleaf or Keystone on Oct. 24. "Something that our team needs to work on is staying focused and staying in the things we can control," he said. "We got a little bit outside of ourselves. You hate to lose like this, but I think it's a good learning moment for our team as we get ready for the playoffs." Contact John Urchek at sports@medina-gazette.com. Bay 5, Buckeye 0BUCKEYE 0 0 — 0BAY 5 0 — 0FirstBa — Brock Pickett, 26:10.Ba — Ashton Price, 18:46.Ba — Pickett (Penalty kick), 17:29.Ba — Pickett (Connor Bozak), 10:04.Ba — Price (Pickett), 0:23. Shots on goal — Bay 16, Buckeye 1. Saves — P.J. Derksen (Bu) 11, Nolan Sooy (Ba) 1. Corner kicks — Bay 15, Buckeye 1. Records — Buckeye (10-3-2, 7-2), Bay (11-1, 9-0). Junior varsity — Bay 2, Buckeye 1.