High school soccer; Strongsville girls snatch tie from jaws of defeat against Medina

STRONGSVILLE — When facing the champ, a knockout punch is required to become the new queen. For 79:14, the Medina girls soccer team took left hooks and right hooks from reigning Division I state champion Strongsville. The problem was the five-time defending Greater Cleveland Conference winner still had one last shot. That shot came with 46 seconds left Wednesday, and the Mustangs walked out with a 1-1 tie to continue an 11-year, 13-match stranglehold on the Bees. Strongsville celebrated as it walked out of Pat Catan Stadium. Medina left like it lost. "It reminds me of when we tied them here 2-2 here as freshmen (in 2018)," Medina defender Meghan Heath said. "It just kind of sucks. They're a great team, but we outplayed them both years. It just sucks to watch girls I've grown up with get this one. We wanted it. It feels like a loss. It was so close, 46 seconds left and they get that goal. It's heartbreaking." The third-ranked Bees (9-1-2, 2-0-1) took the best the Mustangs (7-2-1, 2-0-1) had for the better part of the contest, only to have the No. 14 team in the state break their hearts when forward Libby Majka sent a direct kick into the mix from 25 yards out on the right side. The ball bounced around in front of the goal a few times and found the foot of Brynn Severance, who had just enough power to put it into the left corner. "Libby hit an awesome ball into the box," Severance said. "There was a scramble around, and it bounced around a few players and I finished it off into the corner. "Medina is a great team. We love the competition every single year. We always get super excited for it. It's just an awesome experience. There's nothing like a Strongsville-Medina game." The 2021 version was eerily similar to 2018, when the Bees allowed two goals in the final 12:15. The last goal came with 2:12 left. Fast forward to Wednesday, and midfielder Riley Kerber gave the Bees a 1-0 lead when she took a pass from Olivia Sipsock with 9 minutes left in the first half. "It's super frustrating, especially with the fact we were winning the whole game," Kerber said. "We let go in the last minute-and-a-half and let them score. We should have stayed on our marks. As a team, we weren't defensively there, clearly. We should have realized that. "I think this will make us come back better. We realized we have to play for the whole 80 minutes and not give up in the last minute because we expect to win because they have scored." The tie continues a trend the the Bees would rather forget. While Medina has had a ton of success at the state level, the Bees haven't beaten Strongsville since Sept. 11, 2010 (Medina 2, Strongsville 1). To put that in perspective, Strongsville came into the game on a 4,037-day streak without a loss to Medina. That's 11 years and 19 days, 132 months or 576 weeks and five days. The last time the Bees won, much of the senior class was 6 years old. In that time, the Mustangs are 8-0-5 against Medina. Since then, the Bees have gone to two state semifinals (2015, 2019) and five regional semifinals (2012-13, 2015, 2018-19), along with winning a conference crown three times (2014, 2016, 2018). "We're not celebrating," Medina coach Jason Rutkowski said. "We're obviously disappointed. We learn from this., They scored in the last 46 seconds, but the game is still 80 minutes. There are things we could have done better. We wanted the result, but you have to play 80 minutes full. "Hopefully this fuels us. A good balance of a team is how they rebound. We have 16 seniors in our group here and I think there is a leadership there, a maturity there and hopefully we rebound." Contact Brad Bournival at bournival929@gmail.com. Medina 1, Strongsville 1 MEDINA 1 0 — 1 STRONGSVILLE 0 1 — 1 First M — Riley Kerber (Olivia Sipsock), 9:00. Second S — Brynn Severance, :46. Shots on goal — Medina 5, Strongsville 5. Corner kicks – Medina 3, Strongsville 10. Saves — Belle Wagner (M) 4, Abby Kudla 4. Records — Medina (9-1-2, 2-0-1), Strongsville (7-2-1, 2-0-1). Junior varsity — Medina 3, Strongsville 0 (M: Kamryn Anderson 2 goals, Cara Petry).