PARMA, Ohio (Oct. 26, 2024) -- Rocky River's 2024 season came to an end Saturday afternoon. It was a hard-fought final battle for the Pirates, who fell to the Twinsburg Tigers 2-0 in the finals of the DIII Northeast 4 District Tournament.
Rocky River, the Northeast District No. 10 seed, and Twinsburg (No. 2) tussled through a taut, scoreless first half with the Tigers rifling off four shots to River's three. All four Twinsburg shots were on frame, and junior goalkeeper Matthew Swislocki registered stops on each. Three of those saves were on high-degree-of-difficulty one-on-one balls with Tiger strikers bearing in on the River cage.
With the Pirate 'keeper's good work, the match made it to the 48th minute before any Byers Field scoreboard digits would be mobilized. And it was the Tigers, winners of 13 straight games heading into Saturday, lighting the first lamps on that board.
In the 48th, junior forward Mario Sanders was set up with a through ball. Sanders finished from just inside the box to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
The Pirates would hustle and muscle their way to five second-half shots in a comeback effort, but that effort would be against the current after the 60th minute when the Double-R had a player doubled up with a second yellow card of the match. That put River down a man the rest of the way.
Senior captain Devin Couch registered an insurance goal for Twinsburg in the 71st minute.
For the game, the Tigers outshot the Pirates 12-8. Twinsburg put 10 shots on goal to Rocky River's. three.
With their 14th straight triumph in tow, the Tigers (18-2) now move on to sweet-16 action in the DIII Buckeye State playoffs. Twinsburg will lock horns and match wits with Northeast District No. 7 University in a Wednesday DIII Region 9 semifinal at Rocket Stadium in Streetsboro.
For the Sons of Blackbeard, Saturday's loss marked just the squad's second since Sept. 4. And Rocky River (13-4-2) coach Kevin Zerbey was impressed with what he saw from his charges on Saturday:
"I'm so proud of our team for continuing to fight when reduced to 10 men. I think we played well and had a good No. 2-seed on its heels a bit in the first half. But things obviously changed in the second half, in terms of us having the ball and being able to dictate what we wanted to do."
For the season, the Pirates scored 63 goals while allowing just 18. River allowed just 8G from Sept. 4-on.
CANNON FIRE ...
NOTABLE: Saturday's district final marked the 76th career game for senior co-captain Stephen Cain. That sets a new program record for the Pirates.
QUOTABLE: "This was a really fun season. Maybe one of the most fun that I've ever had coaching, and it's all down to this group. They just loved coming to training and to games, and they enjoyed being around one another. They wanted to get better and to prove what they could do out on the field every time they played. The seniors helped create this culture. It's a shame that we went out like we did, but it was an incredibly rewarding journey from the summer until today." -- coach Kevin Zerbey
by Skip Snow
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