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Franklin Monroe’s Zach Diceanu will lead the Jets on the field
Saturday
as FM battles Cincinnati Summit Country Day at Northmont for
the
district title in soccer. This is the third trip for the Jets in
school
history in the sport to go the districts, with the first two resulting
in losses. CNO Photo by Dale Barger, fmjets.net
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Jets look for
district title
Will the third time be a charm?
By George Starks
PITSBURG - When Franklin Monroe heads to Northmont Saturday, the Jets
will be looking to do to things...
Get a big monkey off their backs and win the state district soccer
title. Getting the monkey off will automatically bring the state title.
Franklin Monroe has been to the district twice in school history in the
sport and twice, come home with the runner-up trophy.
“I hope the third time is a charm,” said Jets coach Danny Diceanu. We
have lost to Dayton Christian on a penalty kick and Springfield
Catholic who won the state that year, beat us with seven seconds left
on the clock. They scored the game winner. So if we win Saturday, it
will be a first for the school.”
The Jets opposition will be Cincinnati Summit Country Day (a.k.a. The
Summit), the top seed in the Cincy sectional.
The Summit is the last Catholic school (and only Independent school)
from Cincinnati to have won a state title. The Silver Knights have won
12 Miami Valley Conference trophies, 13 district titles, appeared in
eight regional finals, and captured one State Championship. Summit
Country Day has appeared in the Sweet 16 of the State Tournament four
out the past five years. It is a school that is rich in tradition.
“This team is very solid,” said Diceanu. “They are very similar to the
Dayton Christian team. They’re very physical and they wear you down.
They’re very patient on offense and they don’t play long ball, they
control the ball. This is going to be a tough match for us. They are
very good and are ranked sixth in the state.”
In three games through the sectionals, Franklin Monroe has yet to be
scored on, pitching three shutouts for the sectional crown.
“That is something you don’t think about, The further you go into the
tournament, the harder it gets to shut a team out,” Diceanu admitted.
“I don’t think this will be a high scoring game but an exciting game
with some scoring by both teams. Summit is 14-4-1 and they know how to
win.”
As with most any team, defense will be the key in a Jets win.
“We are pretty young on defense,” Diceanu said. “These kids have really
stepped up. We’ve battled through adversity with our injuries and we’ve
had kids come in off the bench and play well. I’ve lost one player to a
concussion against Emmanuel Christian so he’s out for a year. My son
Zach, broke his hand against Emmanuel but he’s playing. Another kid has
a sprained MCL, so we are fighting through the injuries and the kids
coming off the bench have really stepped up. Everybody does a real nice
job. We play good team defense. We do pretty well with the kids that
come in and fill the void.”
On offense, Diceanu want to see aggressive play and his kids attack the
ball. He also wants his kids to score early. A big key in his mind.
“It may be to our advantage, if we jump on them early,” said Diceanu.
“We need to capture that lightening in a bottle and maintain it. We’ve
done that most of the year. To win games and even some of the games we
lost that we were in. We’ve not been shutout all year and having said
that, I hope it doesn’t happen Saturday. We need to let them know we’re
here to play and we’re not going to roll over for them. We’re going to
battle hard to the end, just like we’ve done all year.
“This team we’re playing is really strong though,” Diceanu continued.
“There’s more than one or two guys to mark here, they are all capable
of scoring.”
The game with the Blue Knights is scheduled to start at 4:30, following
the Beavercreek-Springboro match at the football stadium.
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