MACEDONIA, Ohio (Nov. 5, 2024) -- The Rocky River Pirates had their fall campaign come to an end one game short of a state title game. On Tuesday, River fell to the Bay Rockets in a semifinal match of the DIII Buckeye State tournament. Bay won 4-1, taking an early lead and applying pressure throughout the titanic local rivalry match-up sending a north coast squad onto the state's biggest stage. [DIII tournament bracket] 

Rocky River (21-1-1), which a year ago was defeated by Cincinnati Summit Country Day in the 2023 DII Buckeye State title game, coughed up two goals in the opening 13 minutes of action and played the role of the trailer the rest of the way. Bay (21-0-2) got three goals from senior standout Tessa Knapp and is now a plus-30 in goal differential during these playoffs. Since playing to back-to-back draws on Sept. (Medina) and Sept. 11 (Rocky River), the Rockets have gone 18-0. 

The early goals for the Region 9 champions came from Tessa Knapp and Emery Aschenbrener. With Bay not having yielded a goal in five previous playoff games (and in seven straight matches overall) and with the Pirates having scored just two goals across their previous 190 minutes of action against their War by the Shore counterparts, the 2-0 Rocket lead had the appearance of an expansive gulf.

The Region 11-champion Buccaneers did cut halfway into that edge before halftime when Addie Russell netted her 16th goal of the season on a penalty kick in the 26th minute. River and Bay went into the break at Nordonia High School's Boliantz Stadium with the Rockets leading 2-1.

But the Pirates, who went into Tuesday averaging 5.77 goals per game, had no more counters the rest of way. And Knapp, who is the OHSAA's all-time leading scorer with now-179 goals, was the only player to find twine the rest of the way.

With Bay's first win over River since 2021 (RRHS had been 3-0-1 in four meetings since), the Rockets now advance to a Saturday tussle with Highland, which ousted Vandalia Butler 2-0 Tuesday. The DIII title match -- part of the 40th annual girls state tournament -- will be held at 1 p.m. at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus.

For Rocky River, the semifinal loss closes a chapter of Pirate Girls Soccer. It wraps up the careers of seven senior Checkered Buccaneers -- Olivia Byall, Natalie Crompton, Charlotte Dean, Lexi Hammermeister, Caitlin Rose, Sophia Sindelar, Rori Vesy -- who were instrumental in River going to back-to-back state final fours and logging a record of 44-2-1 over 2023-24.

That senior group has also been the core of a very consistent an obvious outreach to youth soccer in the Rocky River community. That there may well be a down-the-road epilogue to this marvelous chapter of program history down the road would not be a surprise.

by Skip Snow

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