“It’s a big deal, especially for the seniors,” said coach Kevin Terrell. “They don’t want to be the class that let the streak end.”
Clinching the title would tie Bellbrook with Carroll for the area’s longest streak of league/conference championships. Carroll won 19 straight titles in the Mid-Miami League from 1987 to 2005.
Entering the week, Bellbrook was 8-0-0 in the SWBL Southwestern, 10-1-1 overall and drawing some votes in the Division II state coaches poll.
Defense has been the Eagles’ strength with nine shutouts and giving up only one goal in SWBL play.
“We had the majority of our defense back in seniors Andrew Beers and Mark Ols and junior Josh Staley,” Terrell said. “The questions going into the season were who would be our stopper, our backup keeper and who our goal-scorers would be besides Eric Lynch.
“We’ve had guys step up the first couple of weeks and answer all those questions. So we’re pretty pleased as a coaching staff as how we are playing.”
The stopper position has been shared by sophomore Jon Geis and Jon Boardman, who have blended nicely with Staley, Beers and Ols.
Senior T.C. Holtz had some experience in goal, but Terrell likes to rotate keepers and had no one to compliment Holtz.
Various players on the team worked on senior Shane Jabir and finally talked him into trying out. Jabir, the son of University of Dayton women’s basketball coach Jim Jabir, had not played soccer since junior high.
“He’s been strictly a basketball player, but has really picked up how to play goalie,” said Terrell. “He’s big (6-4), real athletic and real aggressive. Those are things you can’t coach. Shane had worked very hard to become a capable keeper.
“He obviously has a long way to go. If he wanted to concentrate on soccer, he could be a decent keeper in college.”
Lynch was one of the state’s top scorers as a freshman with 18 goals and 10 assists. He obviously would get much of the defensive attention from opponents. So more scoring options were needed.
The players who have stepped up are junior Luke McCammant (7 goals, 3 assists), sophomore Colton Phillips (5 goals, 4 assists), senior Alex Feld (5 goals, 2 assists), senior Sean Cloonan (4 goals, 4 assists) and junior Alec Remaly (5 goals, 1 assists).
There is no drop-off on Lynch’s play thus far this season with 16 goals and 10 assists. “He’s just a natural finisher,” Terrell said.
“Luke is the guy who has really come on. He played on the JV most of the ’09 season and adapted to the varsity with no problem.”
The Eagles also have good depth with Chris Baumer, Will Niese, Jake Lawson and Jordan Staley averaging 20 minutes per game.
“It’s been a real satisfying year considering we graduated 16 seniors,” said Terrell. “The biggest win we’ve probably had this season outside the SWBL was over Alter (2-0).
“We haven’t had a lot of success against them the last few years and they knocked us out of the (Division II) tournament last year (2-1 in overtime). It’s a win over a traditionally strong program, which will help us when it comes to tournament seeding.”
The D-II tournament draw is Sunday (Oct. 10) with Carroll expected to be the No. 1 seed and Bellbrook No. 2.
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