The Ryle Raiders won their third consecutive 33rd District boys soccer title on Tuesday night, downing the Conner Cougars, 2-0 in the championship game at Boone County High School.
Ryle improved to 14-4-2 on the year while Conner dropped to 9-7-3.
“The defense came out focused and they pretty much executed the plan we had in place,” said Stephen Collins, Ryle head coach. “We stayed behind their players. We made sure not to let them get in dangerous positions where they could get quality shots and on set pieces where we’ve struggled this year, we really played solid and made sure their height didn’t give us a problem and that’s what we were concerned about.”
Junior goalkeeper Landon Barth had four saves for the Raiders with junior Owen King and sophomore Trey Wagner combining for 11 for the Cougars.
The Raiders scored twice in the first half and made it stand. Junior midfielder Diego Hoenderkamp scored his 17th goal of the year on an assist from senior midfielder Cole Marsh. That is the Marsh’s fifth assist this year.
That may be the only goal Ryle wound up needing. But the Raiders added another goal later in the half when freshman striker/midfielder Brice Denigan scored his 14th of the season on the third assist from junior Owen Schierberg.
“We struggled at first (this season). But we’ve come together pretty nice and started to score (a good bit),” Denigan said. “We cleared balls well so they didn’t have any opportunities to score.”
The drawing for the 9th Region Tournament is Saturday at 10 a.m. Ryle will play host to a quarterfinal game Tuesday and Conner will hit the road.
Boys Soccer
35th District Semifinals
Covington Catholic 10, Holmes 0
Beechwood 3, Holy Cross 2
Championship Game on Thursday, Oct. 6 at Holmes
Covington Catholic (9-10-1) vs. Beechwood (10-8-1), 7 p.m.
Girls Soccer
37th District at Scott
Semifinals
Bishop Brossart 6, Scott 0
Campbell County 1, Calvary Christian 0 (forfeit)
Championship Game
Campbell County (10-3-7) vs. Bishop Brossart (10-7-4), 6 p.m.
Volleyball
St. Henry 3, Ryle 0
The St. Henry Crusaders (20-6) won in straight sets by 25-11, 25-17, 25-12 scores over the host Ryle Raiders (19-11).
“We have two weeks left and we’re fine-tuning things,” said Maureen Kaiser, St. Henry head coach. “I gave them four days off over the weekend to heal. Then Monday, we went hard back at it.”
St. Henry passed well with junior libero Elizabeth Tabeling digging up 15 balls. Sophomore defensive specialist Lizzie Casey among others jumped in on the action there.
“When the blockers set up, we can move around and see the balls easier,” Casey said of adjusting to the varsity level. “I feel like it’s just trusting our teammates and trusting ourselves and our abilities that we can play on this team with all these amazing teammates and knowing that we’re getting better in the process.”
Then the likes of juniors Alivia Skidmore and Anna Guard took over. Skidmore put down 13 kills and dug up 13 balls with Guard recording 12 kills.
“It was mainly working between the defense and the blockers,” said Sam Lewis, St. Henry senior outside hitter. “The blockers had to get up to where (Ryle) was hitting mainly and then the defense had to cover around the block. That was sort of one thing we struggled with sometimes. We made adjustments in that last set for sure. It was a good reminder of how to adjust in the middle of the game.”
Head Coach Tasha Lovins said the Raiders played better in the second and third games despite the scores. But Ryle could not match the intensity of the visitors for the most part in what she called an off game.
“We definitely had a lot of errors,” Lovins said. “Hopefully being that a lot of it was our errors, we can go back and improve on them. St. Henry just stayed consistent the whole night. They made fewer errors and that’s the game of volleyball.”
Ryle had 30 kills, 44 digs and 39 assists as a team. Junior libero Alexis Woolf had 16 digs and senior setter Maddie Clark had 18 assists. Junior outside hitter/setter Kiana Dinn recorded 16 kills.
Both teams return to action Thursday. St. Henry travels to Cincinnati St. Ursula for a 6:30 p.m. game and Ryle plays host to Notre Dame (23-4) for a 7 p.m. game.
Other Volleyball Scores
Bishop Brossart 2 (25-6, 25-13), Covington Latin 0
Calvary Christian 2 (25-12, 25-10), Heritage Academy 0
Bellvue 2 (25-11, 25-19), Carroll County 0
Cooper 3 (25-19, 25-16, 19-25, 25-18), Scott 1
Ludlow 2 (25-16, 27-25), Lloyd Memorial 0
Highlands 3 (26-24, 26-24, 19-25, 25-23), Simon Kenton 1
Villa Madonna 2 (20-25, 25-18, 25-23), Newport Central Catholic 1