By Rick Cassano
HAMILTON – The three-peat is only part of Harrison High School’s girls soccer plan.
The Wildcats are hoping for a history-making postseason run and continued on that path Thursday night, celebrating their third straight Division II district championship by throttling Ursuline 7-0 at Hamilton’s Virgil Schwarm Stadium.
Now top-seeded Harrison (15-2-2) will try to do something it has never done – win a regional game.
“I feel like we have enough momentum to get past that,” said Wildcats sophomore Grace Rogers, a defensive center midfielder. “We’ve had a high standard all year. We’ve been playing well to keep going and persevere through everything. Our captains are strong. I think we can go far.”
Harrison coach Kelli Bill said grabbing another district title was worth celebrating for a short time before the Wildcats turn their focus to the next round.
“It is a big deal for these girls,” Bill said. “We haven’t made it past the next game, so hopefully they’re up for it. That’s been a goal of ours all season. It’s all falling into place for us, but we know Tuesday’s going to be tough.”
The regional semifinal against St. Ursula (11-5-3) is set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Xenia’s Doug Adams Stadium. The Bulldogs and host Harrison played to a 1-1 tie on Sept. 12.
St. Ursula ousted the Wildcats in last year’s regional semifinals. In 2024, Harrison took out the Bulldogs in a district final.
“Even though they’re young, I feel like our girls are confident,” Bill said. “Even last year we had a lot of freshmen and sophomores playing, so this is not new to them. They’ve been through it, so I think they’re ready.”
The Wildcats have outscored their opponents 79-14 this season and went 7-0 in October. Their only losses came against Summit Country Day (2-1 on Sept. 1) and Seton (3-2 on Sept. 23).
Harrison closed the regular season with a 4-0 blanking of Ursuline on Oct. 13 and dominated the 10th-seeded Lions (5-14) in Thursday’s rematch as HHS goalkeepers Mallory Oliver and Addy Thacker combined for zero saves.
“Honestly, this is not a shock. I thought we were going to be pretty good this year,” said Wildcats sophomore Lucy Schwieterman, a forward/midfielder. “I’m really happy with the team. I think we can keep going and winning more.”
“We knew they were out to get us because we’re the No. 1 seed, but I think we played really good soccer and showed who we are,” Rogers added. “It was cool winning the district last year because it was my first year. Now it’s two times, so hopefully can keep it going. We want to go farther.”
Schwieterman tallied three goals, while Payton Ross, Olivia Neal, Olivia Fleckenstein and Rogers added one apiece. Assists were contributed by Evie Freel, Autumn Hoch and Rogers.
Harrison was the heavy favorite, but it took the Wildcats half of the opening period to get on the board. Rogers marked her second goal of the season with 20:27 left in the half to break the ice and relieve some of the tension on the Harrison sideline. Bill said that goal was a huge sigh of relief “for all of us.”
“They seemed a little nervous at first,” the HHS coach said. “Once they calmed down a little bit and were a little more composed, we got it together.”
Rogers delivered a shot past Ursuline goalie Sophie Weiss after taking a pass from Hoch.
“Autumn got it to me and I was underneath her, and I’ve been hearing a lot about getting underneath and supporting players,” Rogers said. “I feel like sometimes I’m not confident enough, but when I am, I can do well.”
It was the fifth multi-goal effort of the season for Schwieterman, who leads the Wildcats with 14 goals. She scored twice in the first seven minutes of the second half to pull away from the 2-0 halftime advantage and kick open the floodgates.
“I don’t think I’ve scored three in a game before,” said Schwieterman, who sat out the last 24 minutes of the game because of a calf cramp. “I was really nervous coming into this. People were just passing to the open spaces. I would just take it and shoot it.”
Schwieterman scored just one goal last season while dealing with a fractured growth plate and sprained ankle. She’s come back strong this year with a more aggressive mentality.
“I got told by my old coach last year to not shoot the ball and just pass to my teammates,” Schwieterman said. “This year, I just kind of take it and shoot for myself.”
Schwieterman may not look intimidating, but Bill said as long as she believes in herself, she’s a difficult weapon to stop.
“She’s really turned it up a notch,” Bill said. “She’s got a rifle. When she lets loose, even if it’s right at the keeper, it’s hard for them to catch it.”
Harrison’s defense didn’t have to do a tremendous amount of work Thursday because the Wildcats in the middle and up top controlled the flow of the game.
“I feel like most of the time we had possession on their side of the field,” Bill said. “It was nice, but that also makes you nervous for the next game because they haven’t had a whole lot of pressure these last two games. They’re going to have to get ready for that.”
Rogers said Harrison didn’t play a great game in the September matchup with St. Ursula. She’s expecting the Wildcats to perform better in Round 2.
“I feel like we had opportunities in the first game, but we were kind of moving slow,” Rogers said. “Sometimes we have games where it’s just kind of off. You have to play all game to win against those good teams.”
Ursuline completed a difficult season with three wins in its last five games. Second-year Lions coach Erin Loftus said it may not have looked like it against Harrison, but her squad made a lot of progress this year.
“Harrison’s a good team. They’re fast. They win the ball out of the air,” Loftus said. “I don’t think we played as well as we could have.
“We talk all season long about taking care of the details, winning balls out of the air, hunting the second touch, winning the 50-50 balls, and I don’t think we did exceptionally well in those areas tonight. They hunted the second touch better than we did, and I think that was the differentiating factor for us. We talk about playing the game in five-minute increments. It just wasn’t us tonight.”
Loftus, a 1997 Seton graduate who went on to have a four-year career at Ohio University, said this was her first full year at the Ursuline helm. She got hired to be an assistant coach last season, then was moved into the head position two weeks before tryouts.
“That was a last-minute role change, so the preparation wasn’t there,” Loftus said. “We had a talented group last year, but we really didn’t have an identity. Our expectations and standards are different this year. We’re doing a lot of different things we haven’t done in the past, and our players have responded well.
“We’ve never been a second-half team the last couple years and we haven’t been a very physical team, and we’ve changed that. We went hard at our offseason strength and conditioning program this year, so we’re starting to become more gritty. We’re starting to become stronger on the ball. We’re not quite where we want to be, but we’re making progress.”
The Lions play a brutal schedule in the Girls Greater Catholic League and haven’t had a winning season since going 10-7-1 in 2017. This year’s squad had six seniors – Adera Orr, Ellie Rossman-Roach, Libby Killion, Emerson Tarr, Addie Tent and Kate Rossman-Roach – but Ursuline will return most of its starting lineup.
“I’m excited for us going forward,” Loftus said. “I think we’re going to have a good, nice program. We’re concentrating on things in the offseason that are going to make us better.”