Worthington Christian captures its fourth state championship with a 2-1 overtime win over Bay Village
On what looked like one of the darkest nights of the season, a new star rose for the Worthington Christian boys soccer team.
Sophomore forward Nolan Schoonover scored with 83 seconds left in regulation and set up senior Max Glick’s golden goal in overtime, as the Warriors rallied to beat Bay Village 2-1 and captured the Division IV state championship Nov. 9 at Historic Crew Stadium.
The victory gave Worthington Christian (19-3-2) its fourth state title and first since 2011 — finally adding a new star to the team’s jerseys to the three already stitched for its previous championships.
After scoring the game-winner five minutes into the sudden victory overtime, Glick felt a sense of relief.
“This means a lot,” Glick said. “There’s been a lot of pressure to get back here after coming up short the last two years, but this team is closer than any I’ve been part of. Every guy wanted to go out there every day with this goal in mind.”
“We’re a brotherhood and deep down, we trust each other,” said coach Dan Roads, whose team lost to River Valley 1-0 in double overtime in the 2024 Division IV state final and to Willoughby Andrews Osbourne 2-1 in the 2023 Division III state final. “We’ve had some really hard moments. We have 12 players back who played in last year’s game, so we had a really big group of guys who desired to get here. I think there’s a lot of relief tonight to not be walking out of (the media room) with our heads down, but there’s also a whole lot of joy.”
Schoonover may have had the biggest shot of the year, but he missed seeing it. Trailing 1-0 in conditions that could be described as a shaken-up snow globe, the sophomore said he was looking to pass to junior forward Blake Miller but mishit it. The shot instead caromed off the post and past Bay goalkeeper Logan Jennrich to tie the game with 83 seconds left.
“We joke around that Nolan just closes his eyes and kicks it,” Roads said with a smile. “We’ve seen it in the past. He closes his eyes, kicks it, and magic happens. There was a little bit of magic in the snow tonight.”
Informed of Road’s statement about playing with his eyes closed, Schoonover said with a laugh, “I’m not going to say it’s not true. I had it on the wing, and I saw Blake running at the back post. It hit the post instead of his head. I didn’t even know it went in until I saw Blake start running with his hands up and screaming.”
Before that moment, senior defender Grayden Little is the first to admit his team’s faith was sorely tested in the final five minutes of regulation. After playing to a scoreless draw for most of the game, the Warriors tried to clear the ball out of their end of the field but Bay defender Brogan Wynocker stepped in front of it. Wynocker zipped a pass to junior forward Andrew Starnes, who slipped it past WC goalkeeper Cody Thomas to give the Rockets a 1-0 lead with 2:23 left.
Wynocker’s blast was the second goal the Warriors had given up in their seven-match tournament run to the championship. Tree of Life, which lost to Worthington Christian 3-1 in a regional semifinal, was the only other team to score on the Warriors in the postseason before the state championship.
Worthington Christian approached the state final having outscored its tournament opponents 36-1, including shutouts of Amanda Clearcreek 11-0 in a district final, Liberty Benton 4-0 in a regional final, and Wheelersburg 3-0 in a state semifinal.
Two words went through Little’s mind after the Rockets scored: Not again.
“I’m going to be honest. When they scored, I just thought, ‘I can’t do this again three years in a row. It’s getting tragic,’” Little said.
“There was not a lot of hope in the last two minutes,” Roads added. “That’s a good life lesson. We felt down and out. We were pretty much done for our third straight year. Then to get the chance to feel that hope again … is a pretty awesome thing.”
While his game-tying goal was a happy accident, Schoonover’s game-winning assist was the result of something the coaching staff had seen.
“We were talking about that before the game,” he said. “If I am in the nine spot, we need to pass it to one of the wings because their defense immediately closes in on the nine. I passed it over to Max, and he put it in the net.
“(Getting the fourth star) means a lot. Last year, it felt like the world had collapsed upon me when we lost because I’d had such a great bond with the seniors, and they really deserved it. But then we came back and wanted it more. I think it really didn’t sink in until about 3 a.m. on Nov. 10. I woke up and went, ‘Oh my gosh, we really won it.’”
The state title was part of an amazing run for the Warriors this season. Worthington Christian won the Central Buckeye League title with a 7-0 record, outscoring opponents 35-5. Bexley, which lost to the Warriors 2-0, was second (6-1) and followed by Grandview and Bishop Ready (4-3).
Senior Ethan Carrel, who scored 10 goals and had four assists, was named the Central Buckeye League and Division IV Central District Player of the Year. Glick and Little were first-team all-district selections.
Defensively, the Warriors graduate seniors keepers Thomas and Ethan Reale and defenders Ian St. John (3g, 2a), Michael Shindle, Little (2g, 5a), and Christian Lehman (1g). Offensively, Worthington Christian will be without forwards CJ Bah (5g, 11a), Andrew Gehfeld (1g), and Glick (20g, 13a) and midfielders Carrel and Nolan Palmer (6g, 5a).
Expected to return to the defense are juniors Oliver Blank (1g, 1a), Asher Doran, Cy Edwards (1g), and Ben Trader, sophomores Cole Little (1a), Luke Stone (2g), as defenders and sophomore Noah Brown as goalkeeper. Juniors Caleb Fields (2g, 1a), Colton Hoskinson (2g, 20a), Isaac Hoeflich (1g) and sophomores Ian Rapp (9g, 4a) and Ian Valente (1a) are expected to return to the midfield and juniors Miller (18g, 11a), Luke Myers (3g, 1a) and sophomores Schoonover (22g, 11a), and Ben Winfree (4g, 1a).
Roads said he was going to enjoy this moment, but he knows the Warriors have a lot of work to do to get back to the finals for a fourth consecutive season.
“We have to sacrifice and put ourselves aside in ways that maybe some other teams don’t,” he said. “Our goal in every single season is to get here because people notice these games. When they notice us, they notice our community and who we represent. That’s Christ. Today it feels really good to accomplish that goal.”