COLUMBUS — All season long the No. 1-ranked Madison girls soccer team has relied on the exploits of senior All-American Taylor Huff.
Huff was, as always, a central figure in Friday night’s 2-1 state championship victory over second-ranked Granville, picking up an assist on the game-winning goal. But those around her elevated their play too — to elite quality when it mattered most.
Let’s start with keeper Paige Eldridge.
“She played lights out for us,” Madison coach Zac Huff said.
The Rams’ outstanding senior literally saved the match by turning away a penalty kick with 20:02 showing.
Granville senior midfielder Ella Rogers lined up the opportunity, but Eldridge was ready for her, drawing on her memory bank from when the two teams met earlier this season.
“I was really nervous,” Eldridge said. “They had a PK in our first match and that time she went right. I had a 50-50 chance and I figured she would go right again, so I dove left and I guessed right.”
The ball ricocheted out and the Rams’ eventually cleared it out of harm’s way.
For the game, Eldridge had six saves, five in the second half, including three late, clutch stops that thwarted the Blue Aces at every turn. One came off a corner kick that put the ball in the danger zone again.
“I told them to put up a wall, and I had a lot of nerves, but we got through it,” Eldridge said. “I felt great for us, but bad for them, because we were in their situation last year.”
Indeed. Madison dropped a 2-0 heartbreaker in last year’s state title game, and took a full year to vanquish that bad dream. The Rams haven’t lost a game since that outing, and finished the season 21-0-3, tying a school record for most wins in a season.
It wasn’t easy though. Taylor Huff pulled off a hat trick in the second half to help Madison rally from a 2-0 deficit to defeat No. 3 Rocky River 4-2 in the state semifinals.
On Friday night, it was freshman Nevaeh Lewis who stepped into the spotlight. The budding speedster scored both Ram goals, one off an assist from Ashleigh Bechtel, and another on a rebound off the Granville keeper who was fending off a Huff shot from midfield.
“I was really nervous at first,” Lewis said. “After I got that first goal I settled down and played my game.
“I knew the seniors were really looking forward to this, and we couldn’t let them down.”
Madison’s senior class compiled a 76-6-10 record, with three Final Fours, two state championship games, and, finally, a state crown.
“To end a career in the state finals, with a state championship, it’s just the best,” Taylor Huff said. “I can’t imagine a better ending.”
Granville (19-1-2) offered a stiff challenge.
The Blue Aces controlled the ball for most of the match, and the vast majority of the game was played at Madison’s defensive end of the pitch. Coach Scott Forster’s club outshot the Rams 4-3 in the first half and 9-1 in the second half, for a 13-4 bulge overall.
But Eldridge and that sticky Madison defense hung tough.
“They’re a great team, they just pass the ball so well,” Zac Huff said.
Still, no one can question Madison’s toughness, tenacity or heart.
For the season, the Rams played second-ranked Granville twice and third-ranked Rocky River once, once each in the last week, and went 2-0-1 against the top Division II squads in Ohio. In those three games combined, Madison outscored such top-shelf competition 8-5 and never lost in a trio of pressure-packed matches.
“This group of seniors, they just played their hearts out,” Zac Huff said.
Madison’s 11 seniors will hang the school’s second state championship banner, next to the 1997 Division I volleyball team.
