St. Ignatius survives double overtime to win sixth consecutive Division I boys state soccer title

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In the final second of double overtime the St. Ignatius Wildcats pulled through as Bryce Ince-Lovelace found a window to put a shot past St. Charles' Aiden Rice and give the Wildcats a 1-0 win for their sixth consecutive state championship.

"That was an amazing state championship game between two really good teams. You would expect it to go down to the wire, and it really did go down to the very last second," Wildcats head coach Mike McLaughlin said. "It's incredible what Columbus St. Charles has accomplished this year. They could have, should have been in a lower division, but they chose to come up to the first division, and and we're a second away from penalty kicks."

St. Charles (14-3-4) has been in the state semifinals on 10 different occasions. Of those 10 trips the Cardinals have advanced to six state title games with four runner-up finishes and two state championships (1983 and 1985).

The last time the Cardinals made the title game they ran into the Wildcats. That was 2016, the final year of a St. Ignatius three-peat.

The Wildcats (15-4-2) are Ohio's winningest soccer program. Winners of each of the last five state championships, the Wildcats entered Sunday night's matchup with 20 trips to the state semifinal, including each of the last 11 seasons, one runner-up finish (2009) and 13 state titles since claiming their first one in 1995.

Sunday was not the first time St. Charles and St. Ignatius have faced each other this season. Back in early September the Wildcats went to St. Charles and won 4-2.

"We're a different team. They're a different team. They were better. We were better," McLaughlin said. "A season makes you stronger or breaks you apart. And their season kept making them stronger and stronger and stronger. They won the state semi final, and they just kept getting better and better. And their belief was different than it was a month and a half ago, and I think that was a big difference."

While the Wildcats had plenty of scoring opportunities early on it was evident that Sunday's matchup would not have that same outcome.

The Wildcats put six shots on goal and all six times Cardinals goalie Aiden Rice made a save to keep the score at 0-0. While the Cardinal defense was stalwart St. Ignatius had the advantage in possession as well.

As far as offense goes, however, the Caridinals had a hard time creating scoring opportunities they put just two shots on goal in regulation, and only one of them was a real threat.

"We talked about, throughout the season, just about staying locked in," WIldcats defender Justis Olorunto said. "Knowing that in a moment like that things can change so quickly. So it was a point where we were all exhausted. It comes like the soccer part just leaves us at one point. It's just about who's going to fight we want to most of our moments first."

Neither side had many good looks in the first overtime period, but in the second the Wildcats had a chance to end the game with a breakaway 1-v-1 with Rice, but the shot hit the post and bounced back into the field of play.

Two minutes later St. Charles almost ended it with a shot from the top right side of the box, but Wildcats goalkeeper Josh Speelman made a fully extended diving save to keep the game going.

With 30 seconds left in double overtime Marty McLaughlin had the ball at his feet.

"You don't want to go into penalties, because it's unpredictable, so you just got to keep going forward, like, even if there's 30 seconds to go," Marty McLaughlin said. "Yesterday, there was a game, Bay vs. Highland, where they scored 12 seconds to go. You never know what can happen, so you just got to keep pushing to the end."

He took off down the left side of the field and passed it up to Dom Ruggerio. Ruggerio took it down the alley and swung it to Ince-Lovelace who found the back of the net.

"Honestly, I wasn't really thinking. I was so exhausted," Ince-Lovelace said. "I just, I just saw it under my feet, and I just smashed it."