'Freaking awesome,' Rootstown boys soccer earns first state berth

RAVENNA — It had been a tough 20 minutes for Rootstown.

Over the final 15 minutes of regulation, the Rovers had let a two-goal lead slip.

The first five minutes of overtime didn't go much better.

Still, players like Zach Pastor and Sam Textor mean a goal is never far away, and in the 86th minute, the deadly duo struck one final time to lift Rootstown boys soccer to its first state berth with a 4-3 victory over Open Door Christian.

"It was freaking awesome," Rovers coach Charlie Voth said. "It feels so good for these kids."

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Brayden Dougherty started the game-winning counter with a pass to fellow senior Tycho Smolk, who found Pastor. The senior quartet continued with Pastor quickly sending the ball forward, leading the speedy Textor up the right side of the field. Textor won the race to the ball, got inside his defender and the box and blasted the game-winning goal, his 22nd of the season.

"Me and Sam, we have a lot of chemistry together up top," Pastor said. "Even in the short time in preseason, we were working great together. We had a lot of goals in just a short number of games. And I have full faith in Sam, that getting him the ball, it'll really pay off."

Pastor passing to Textor paid off twice for goals against the previously undefeated Patriots. Truth be told, it's paid off all year as Textor, who had 12 career goals entering his senior season, has enjoyed a breakout year.

"I felt like I was getting pushed off the ball way too easily," Textor said. "So I started getting in the gym, and, yeah, it's paid off pretty well. I was also just working with the ball all the time, working on my touches, working on my shooting, working on all that, so all around just constant work in the offseason, and, yeah, I was waiting for this moment my whole life."

How Rootstown won a wild regional final

Regional championship games should be played at a high level.

Certainly, the Patriots and Rovers did that.

The game's first goal was a beauty with Pastor blasting a free kick across the box and fellow senior Caleb Fillmore heading it home by the back post.

"He just sees me back post," Fillmore said. "I was pretty much unmarked back there. Sometimes they don't expect the center back to come up and be a threat. I just saw it and watched it in. That was my first header goal ever."

Open Door star Brayden Bendik knotted the score roughly 12 minutes later, but Pastor put Rootstown back in front at the half when he found Textor for the first time, for a 37th-minute goal. Pastor is best known as a scorer, perhaps, but the senior had three assists in the Rovers' victory over the Patriots.

"This ​year, he got more strength and he can see the ​field and ​seeing the field is everything," Voth said. "Him and Bryson are just like two point guards on the team."

When junior Dylan Boland fired a shot into the far right side of the net in the 51st minute, it felt like Rootstown might have the game in hand, up 3-1.

Alas, the dangerous Bendik struck again on a beautiful slashing run in the 67th minute and freshman Flynn Yoho blasted the tying goal off a perfectly-placed cross in the 79th minute.

How did the stunned Rovers shake all of that off?

"​Just play your game," Rootstown assistant coach Aaron Miracle said. "That's it. Keep doing what we do. We ​went with the same starting lineup that we always do, and it was just, 'Hey, we've been in this position before​, this adversity, so go out there​ and how bad do you want it?' It no longer mattered how good each team was. It's how bad you ​w​anted it."

It would take maximum effort all over the field.

Including the defensive end, where Noah Zager made yet another massive save and Fillmore cleared the ball off the line in the 83rd minute.

And the offensive end, with Pastor finding Textor for the game-winner to start a delirious scene at Portage Community Bank Stadium.

Pastor ran into a defender and started cramping up right after his game-winning assist and had to be carried off the field. And Voth, at 74 years old and in his 26th year leading Rootstown, led a rousing chant of "how about those Rovers" as his players danced around him, trophy in hand.

"I'm ready to bawl now," Voth said. "It's great. It's a lot of heart. Heart, ​soul and passion​, right?"

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: 'Freaking awesome,' Rootstown boys soccer earns first state berth

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