The thought process for the moment New Albany boys soccer coach Johnny Ulry and his team were not sure would ever happen began about a month ago.
It came to fruition Sunday evening at Historic Crew Stadium, when after 110 scoreless minutes the Division II state championship came down to penalty kicks.
“We started figuring out who we wanted to shoot, what the order would be, and we did that every day, multiple times,” Ulry said. “From a shooter’s standpoint, I felt really good about our chances because they hit great shots and I knew (senior goalie) Wyatt (Butler) would come up big just because of how he was playing.”
And so it played out.
“I couldn’t feel my legs,” senior midfielder Adam Hoy said. “I went the same way in practice every single time and called game. I knew no matter what I would go that way and if I placed it well enough, it would go in.”
New Albany converted on all five of its penalty kicks, Butler stopped the first Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit shot he saw and Hoy nailed the championship-winner to the left of Warriors goalie Quinn Anderson to give New Albany a 1-0 victory (5-3 on penalty kicks) and its first title in its third finals appearance.
The Division I state runner-up in 2020 and 2022, New Albany (20-1) got 11 saves from Butler and withstood a fast start that saw the teams combine for five shots in the first six minutes and 34 for the game, 21 of which came from the Eagles.
Junior midfielder Londen Sears, sophomore midfielder Ben Lindimore, junior forward Kuda Kanyongo and sophomore midfielder Ben Verst converted in the shootout for New Albany.
Butler made the save in the first round against senior midfielder Andrew Conti before junior midfielder Freddie Marcell, senior forward Brady Catanzarite and junior midfielder Landon Litras scored for the Warriors (17-4-2) before Hoy’s winner.
“I had to trust myself,” Butler said. “I told the guys if they buried shots, I would get one save.”
The final was the third in seven games this weekend to go to penalty kicks, including Watterson’s victory in the Division II girls championship Saturday.
Ulry called the game “a chess match” after the frantic start.
“Both teams were just going after it and then everybody got tired,” Ulry said. “It’s a big field and the game settled down. We knew their front five were incredibly good and they wanted to get down the field quickly on us. It would probably be a track meet at times. They scored 105 goals this season with those guys up top and we knew we had to control them to have a chance. Our goalie just happened to have a career game.”
Anderson made nine saves for Walsh Jesuit, which was denied its fourth championship and first since its most recent finals appearance in 2006.
“It actually stings a lot less than I thought it would because I am so proud of these guys,” Warriors coach Tony Catanzarite said. “They battled as hard as they could and played a heck of a game.”
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