FINDLAY — Two Northwest Ohio girls soccer teams are one win from a state championship. Findlay Liberty-Benton and Toledo Ottawa Hills both won their OHSAA state semifinals on Tuesday, Nov. 10, and will play for titles on Friday, Nov. 13, at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus, according to the semifinal scores and championship schedule published by The Columbus Dispatch.
Liberty-Benton edged Worthington Christian 2-1 in a Division IV semifinal, The Columbus Dispatch reported. In the other Division IV semifinal, Cincinnati Mariemont — the state’s No. 1-ranked team, according to the Canton Repository — beat previously unbeaten Beloit West Branch 3-0 at Swank Field in Heath. Mariemont (20-1-2) advances to face Liberty-Benton (20-2-1) in the final at noon Friday, the Canton Repository reported. The Eagles have been to the state tournament in three previous seasons and finished as state runner-up in 2019, according to Cincinnati.com’s finals preview.
Ottawa Hills needed the longest route of the night. The Green Bears beat Columbus Academy 3-2 in a shootout in their Division V semifinal at Tiffin, according to The Columbus Dispatch’s score list. Their final opponent is unbeaten Doylestown Chippewa (21-0-1), which shut out Berlin Hiland 3-0 in the other semifinal, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The Division V championship kicks off at 3 p.m. Friday, after the Division IV final.
The OHSAA set the stage on Nov. 8, announcing that the soccer state semifinals would be played Tuesday and Wednesday at sites around Ohio, with winners advancing to ScottsMiracle-Gro Field for championship games Friday through Monday. Liberty-Benton played its semifinal against Worthington Christian at Marion Harding, and Ottawa Hills met Columbus Academy at Tiffin, per the OHSAA pairings.
Across the bracket, Tuesday also closed a historic season. West Branch, which the Canton Repository reported was the first girls soccer team from Mahoning County ever to qualify for the state tournament, finished unbeaten until the semifinal at 22-0 before falling to Mariemont. Mariemont, in its first state tournament in program history, is also playing in its first state final, according to Cincinnati.com. Liberty-Benton’s own history is longer: the Eagles were state runners-up in 2019 and are back in the final for the first time since, according to Cincinnati.com’s preview.
Ottawa Hills’ opponent is the tournament’s last unbeaten team. Chippewa (21-0-1) has not lost all season and shut out Berlin Hiland 3-0 to reach the Division V final, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The Green Bears (17-3-2) will be underdogs on paper — but they have already survived a shootout against a one-loss team, and in a one-game final that resilience is its own credential.
Both Northwest Ohio finalists arrived the hard way. Liberty-Benton reached the semifinal by routing Chagrin Falls 5-0 in the Division IV regional final at Sandusky, its sixth consecutive victory, Ohio Varsity reported. Ottawa Hills ground out a 1-0 regional-final win over Oak Harbor to reach the state tournament, according to the Akron Beacon Journal’s regional score list. The shootout win over Columbus Academy — a program that came in at 15-1-4 — is the Green Bears’ biggest result of the run.
Friday’s finals are part of a five-division championship weekend. In Division I, Strongsville beat defending champion Upper Arlington 2-0 and will play Cincinnati Seton at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Watterson beat Avon 4-0 to reach the Division II final against Hudson at 7 p.m. Saturday, and Bay Village Bay will play Cincinnati Indian Hill in Division III at 4 p.m. Saturday, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
For Northwest Ohio fans, the weekend starts early and stacks up: two local teams, back-to-back finals, three hours apart on the same field. It is the same ScottsMiracle-Gro Field where Hudson’s girls reached their own state final this week, and it comes in a month when Ohio’s fall tournaments are deciding champions across sports, from the football playoff semifinals to the college stretch run that included Ohio’s Battle of the Bricks loss at Miami.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on. Confirmed by The Columbus Dispatch’s official score list: both semifinal results and both Friday kickoff times. Still to come: the finals themselves. No championship has been decided yet, and NewsForce247 will not report one until the games are played.
What happens next is simple and close: Liberty-Benton plays Mariemont for the Division IV title at noon Friday, Nov. 13, and Ottawa Hills plays Chippewa for the Division V title at 3 p.m. Friday — both at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus, with two state championships available to Northwest Ohio in a single afternoon.
Photo: Chip Griffin, CC BY