CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Walsh Jesuit’s Hannah Pachan has had her fair share of memorable moments against Strongsville.
She added to the list Monday night when she found the bottom right corner of the goal on a through ball from Reagan Pentz, giving the Warriors a 1-0 advantage four minutes into a 2023 state semifinal rematch against the Mustangs.
Abby Witkiewicz made it 2-0 just two minutes later after being on the receiving end of a corner kick from Nora Lundberg.
The Warriors never looked back from there en route to a 4-1 win at home.
“Northeast Ohio has a ton of really good teams, and always at the top, Strongsville is always leading the pack,” Walsh Jesuit head coach Javier Iriart said after the win. “From my perspective, it’s always a joy going up against them, because we always learn so much from about ourselves based on how we look against them.”
Monday’s matchup was one of the first big ones for fans to circle when teams across Northeast Ohio began announcing their schedules for the 2024 season.
Strongsville and Walsh have ended each others’ seasons in each of the last two years.
The Mustangs beat the Warriors in the 2022 regional final after a last-minute penalty against the Warriors.
Their first game last year was a 1-1 tie at Strongsville early in the regular season, but when they met in the state semifinal Walsh took a 2-1 victory thanks to a free kick goal in the final minutes from Pachan.
The Warriors went on to win their 11th state championship and first since a five-peat from 2012-16.
Strongsville has four state championships to its name, with the most recent coming in 2020.
The two sides have decorated the state record books, but are 1-1-1 in their last three outings against one another entering Monday’s game.
After taking a two goal lead the Warriors dominated the possession battle for the duration of the first half. They were unable to find the back of the net, but they controlled the tempo and limited Strongsville’s attempts in the process.
“We like to think that the more we possess, the less we defend,” Iriart said. “So we kind of build our game model basically all around the idea of the more we move it the less the other team has it, and we try to control the game as much as we can at every moment, so I’m happy that we can get early goals which kind of settles the game down and allows us to execute from there on out.”
The Mustangs controlled the ball early in the second half with a few chances to score, but the Warriors stepped up to clear the ball over and over again.
That persistence defensively led to opportunities the other way. Reagan Pentz capitalized on one of those opportunities after a ball ricocheted her way with just over 20 minutes remaining.
“We’ve talked about driving to the end line, getting our head up and picking out a player, not just passing it,” Pentz said following the win. “They had continuously followed us into the box, except for the top of the box. So I kind of held my run a little bit, and she was able to get her head up and pick me out perfectly. I just took a touch and knew I had to, knew I had to finish it, since I was so close.”
Strongsville wouldn’t let Walsh have all the fun. Shortly after Pentz’s goal, junior Leah Snell put the Mustangs on the board after nipping the bottom right corner from the right side of the box.
After trading possessions, and scoring chances, down the stretch the Warriors made it 4-1 with about 10 minutes left on a penalty kick from Witkiewicz.
“It’s just fun to come out and have competitive games like this and have good competition against good players that we’ve grown up with. We’ve grown up playing them against in club, and just seeing them grow up, and then to come out and get a win, especially senior year was really nice,” Pentz said. “We’ve had our ups and downs with (Strongsville), so ending it, unless we see them in playoffs, on our home turf with a win is really nice.”
The Warriors will be back in action Saturday when Massillon Jackson makes the trip to Cuyahoga Falls. Strongsville will head to Shaker Heights on Wednesday for a Greater Cleveland Conference battle.
