The Cleveland boys soccer team has been spectacular this season, finishing the regular season in the best spot since 2019, when Cleveland made a run to the state semifinals. Now sitting at #10 in the OSAA 6A rankings, Cleveland is on track to go far in the playoffs. Throughout the season, multiple players have said “the sky is the limit” when describing the ceiling for this year’s team. They will be put to the test once the playoffs begin on Nov. 1.
Cleveland is led by a group of captains with plenty of varsity experience: four-year starting goalkeeper Derick Puppo, senior starting midfielder Sacha Abraham, and junior forward Oscar Johnson, who earned PIL first team honors last season.
The team has been bolstered by key transfers this season, including starting junior defender Emmett Bregoli and junior midfielder Zephyr Schlitz, who have been key to the quicker play that head coach Nick Yoder implemented over the offseason.
Offensively, Johnson leads the team in goals with 12 along with five assists. Junior Max Morrison trails Johnson with five goals.
The season began with some offensive struggles, as the team scored just 15 goals in the first 12 games. However, Cleveland’s defense has been outstanding since opening night. The defensive line is made up of seniors Gabe Yaris, Bowie Vaughan, Harrison McDonell, and Rowan Simons, along with juniors Emmett Bregoli, Cole Christensen, and North Miller-Root. This group let in just seven goals in the first seven games of the year.
Yaris, the starting center back, said he and the rest of the team have improved their communication on the field throughout the season, and that’s been vital to their recent success. They began league play with a strong 7W-1L-4T record.
“How I interact with and how I command my backline has drastically improved,” said Puppo.
In the PIL, Cleveland went 5W-2L-1T with one goal losses to top ten teams, Grant and Lincoln. The Warriors were boasting an impressive 3 to 1 goals-to-goals-scored-on ratio going into their last game vs Ida B Wells.
Multiple players talked about the rivalry game against Franklin as the highlight of their season so far. Winning the Southeast Cup on the road 3-0 on Franklin’s senior night meant so much to the team as well as the school community. The fans showed out at the game, with about 50 Cleveland students making up the student section. Other defining PIL wins came against Roosevelt (6-1), Benson (4-1), and McDaniel (2-1). To wrap up the regular season, Cleveland tied with Ida B Wells 2-2.
Now with the automatic bid into the playoffs from winning third in PIL, Cleveland is expected to get a first-round home game, meaning they get seeded 16 or higher. Ending the regular season with a good playoff seed and a 7W-3L-5T record is the perfect spot to be in. Cleveland’s only losses up to this point are against the number five, seven, and eleven teams in 6A, each by just a single goal.
With playoffs right around the corner, the team is very locked in.
“We just got to take it one game at a time, so I guess it’s just about getting that first home game, and put it away early and really dominate,” Puppo said.
This season Cleveland has shown they can compete with each team they play. “We have the talent and we have the passion, it’s all just about getting the results now,” said Morrison.
