MANSFIELD — David Cochran will return to the scene of his crime Saturday night.
Cochran and his Mansfield Christian teammates will play for a Division III state championship at 7 p.m. Saturday against Summit Country Day at Crew Stadium in Columbus. The last time Cochran, a sophomore forward, was on the field at Crew Stadium, he tried to walk off with a souvenir.
It was Sept. 17, 2009 and the Flames played to a 1-1 tie against Berlin Hiland in Columbus.
“A couple years ago, the Crew had a deal where if you sell a certain amount of tickets you got to play a game there. I was a ball boy,” said Cochran, whose header off a Samuel Paul crossing pass opened the floodgates in a 3-0 win over Gates Mills Hawken in Wednesday’s state semifinal match at Nordonia High School. “We took a little piece of the grass and put it in a cup and we were going to take it home. We were like, ‘This is Crew grass.’ ”
Stadium officials had other ideas.
“They actually told us to put it back,” Cochran said. “They didn’t want us taking stuff.”
The Flames (21-1-0) hope to bring home a more lasting memento Saturday against defending state champ Summit Country Day (16-2-4). A state championship trophy would trump a piece of sod.
Not a lot of high school soccer prognosticators gave MCS much of a chance after losing 13 seniors off last year’s regional runner-up team. First-year coach Jesse Rider couldn’t have seen this coming.
Or could he?
“I don’t want to say no because certainly (reaching the championship game) is our goal,” said Rider, a 2002 Mansfield Christian graduate. “We only start three seniors. There’s a lot of guys out here who want to say, ‘We’re pretty good, too,’ and I think they can make that claim.”
David Cochran’s older brother, senior midfielder Josh, was one of only a few holdovers from Mansfield Christian’s 2011 regional championship team. He sees some similarities between the ’11 and ’13 Flames.
“The last time we made it to the Final Four, the pressure was down that year,” David Cochran said. “We were a young team and weren’t expected to do that well and that is when we made a run.
“Going into this year I knew we had a young team again and not much was expected of us. I thought to myself, ‘Who knows what can happen?’ ”
The elder Cochran scored Mansfield Christian’s second first-half goal Wednesday on a direct kick just outside the box. The 2-0 lead was more than enough for senior goal keeper Caleb Young, who pitched his 11th shutout of the season and his fifth in six tournament games.
“It feels pretty good. This is my first year playing goalie and we’re going to the state championship game,” said Young, who made just two saves Wednesday. “I never imagined it.”
Mansfield Christian’s defense is anchored by senior Matt Millard, another holdover from the 2011 Final Four team. Millard was tasked with blanketing prolific Hawken midfielder Patrick Connors on Wednesday and performed admirably.
“The plan was to keep the ball off of (Connors’) feet,” Young said. “Matt Millard did an excellent job of that. They only got a couple of shots off.”
Scoring early and often — Mansfield Christian has trailed just once during its postseason run — has allowed Young to play free and easy.
“It definitely gives you a confidence boost,” he said. “You know there is a safety net whether you need it or not.”
The Flames will have their hands full Saturday night. Summit Country Day is the defending Division III state champ and finished first in the final Ohio Scholastic Soccer Cocaches Association state poll. Mansfield Christian was No. 2.
Nate Logan, Country Day’s freshman goal keeper, recorded his 14th shutout in Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Worthington Christian. Austin Smythe and Matt Meister scored goals for coach Barnard Baker, who announced last month he would retire at season’s end. One of Country Day’s two losses came against St. Benedict’s Prep of Newark, N.J., the nation’s top ranked high school team, in September.
Like Mansfield Christian, Summit Country Day lost a talented senior class to graduation. And like the Flames, the Silver Knights bucked the odds to reach the state championship game.
“I thought this was possible, but I knew it would take a lot of hard work,” said MCS sophomore midfielder Brandon Mount, who scored a second-half insurance goal Wednesday. “I’m really looking forward to playing in Crew Stadium. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
And David Cochran will finally keep his keepsake.
“I guess I can get another piece of sod Saturday,” he said. “It’s a great stadium and a great atmosphere. It’s crazy that we’ll get the chance to play for a state championship there.”
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
