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Franklin
Monroe senior Brain Robison receives a hug from Principle
Jason Wood after the Jets heartbreaking
loss to Cincinnati Seven Hills
Thursday in the district title game at Monroe High School. The Stingers
score wit
7:41 left in the game to post a 3-2 victory over the Jets.
CNO Photos by George Starks
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Jets title bid
falls short
By George Starks
MONROE- Franklin Monroe gave it all it had Thursday in the Jets
district title game with Cincinnati Seven Hills at Monroe High School.
With 7:41 remaining, Seven Hills senior George Karamanoukian knocked in
the winning goal as the Stingers dropped a 3-2 district title loss on
the Jets.
“It’s very difficult to get to this position and I’m very proud of my
guys and I thought they did a great job to get here,” said Jets coach
Danny Diceanu. “Win or lose, it doesn’t matter. We battled and played a
great team.”
It was the second time the two teams had met this year. The first go
around, the Stingers posted a 4-1 victory over the Jets at Franklin
Monroe on October 4.
“We were ready for them,” said Diceanu. “We prepared for then in what
little time we had a we did the best we could. We held them scoreless
for a long time and sometimes it just doesn’t work the way you wanted.
It doesn’t mean we failed. We left it all on the field tonight.”
Franklin Monroe drew first blood with 37:08 left in the opening half
when sophomore Jacob Shellabarger punched one in from 20 yards out,
giving the Jets a 1-0 lead.
That lead would hold up through the first half as the Jets defense
would be tested had right to the break.
“We were prepared for the pressure,” said Diceanu. “We were aware of
what it was going to be like. Every time you get a throw in from the 45
yard line in, you’re under pressure because of that long throw. I
though we dealt with it really well. We did a very good job of
neutralizing that long throw. I told them to keep playing hard at
halftime. We went over some of their tactics and techniques they were
working and defensively giving up three goals, you’re not happy but
overall, it could have been a lot worse. They have a lot of weapons and
you just don’t know which one to shut down. There’s a reason they are
the number three team in the state. They don’t let you breath.”
Seven Hills came out in the second half, getting things knotted up at
the 29:47 point of the half on a penalty kick by Tucker Robinson.
With 22:22 left in the game, the Stingers went up 2-1 on a goal from
junior Andrei Savu.
The Jets would even things up with 15:51 remaining as Marcus Horner
would do the honors.
“The opening goal by Jacob was big and it set the tone of the game,”
remarked Diceanu. “It gave them the realization that we came here to
play and we weren’t going to lay down for them and let them walk all
over us. We gave them a game and it was a heck of a game tonight.
Marcus has been big for us the last four years and he stepped it up and
got things even. We gave them all they could handle tonight.”
Before the Stingers would grab the final lead, disaster struck the
Franklin Monroe bunch with 8:42 remaining.
Senior Brian Robison, playing all season with a torn ACL in his right
knee, tweaked that knee on a play that he was looking to score on.
Brian is a big part of this team and when we lost him, it changed our
whole perspective about how we go about doing things,” said the Jets
coach. “He is three time all state and regional player last year. Three
time district player of the year and three time CCC player of the year
so when you lose him, you lose a lot. Guys came in and gave us some
good minutes but we’re not the same firepower without him obviously.”
Diceanu will lose three seniors in Horner, Robison and Daniel Wiseman
but will return four juniors and a host of sophomores and freshman.
“I have a freshman class that came in and started and played real
well,” said Diceanu. “They did a great job this year, especially
tonight filling in, taking care of these guys. They’re dangerous and it
gives me hope for next year.”
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Jets
freshman Cole McGlinch works the ball upfield for Franklin Monroe.
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