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COLUMBUS – Aurora fell short Sunday in its quest for a first boys soccer title with a 3-0 loss to Columbus Bishop Watterson in the OHSAA Division III state championship game, but the Greenmen hope it’s the start of bigger things to come. Bishop Watterson struck with two first half goals to take control of the game, as Alex Das scored after he created a breakaway with 17:52 left to take a 1-0 lead. Then Max Meacham made it 2-0 when he scored from about 20 yards out with 5:38 left before the half. “They’re a great team, and it was hard to just kind of adjust and get comfortable,” Aurora senior defender Griffin McMaster said. “But I felt like in the middle of the first half, we kind of got there, and then once we got that second goal scored on us, it was just like, ‘All right, but we gotta keep going.’ ” Aurora (19-2-3) did just that and had a number of scoring opportunities midway through the second half. Jordan West, Cameron Gentille and Camden Roy all had chances in a span of 65 seconds but could not find the back of the net. “I thought they showed some courage and guts being able to come through, and we gave ourselves some chances,” Aurora first-year head coach Louis Kastelic said. “At the end of the day, soccer is just that funny game where sometimes, you can do all the right things, and the ball for whatever reason just won’t go in the back of the net.” Watterson iced the game with 9:08 left in the game on a header by Michael Quinn off a pass from Meacham. It was the first state championship game and just the third time making the state semifinals for Aurora, which will lose 14 seniors from this year’s squad. Those 14 seniors, however, are looking forward to seeing what they started become the norm for the Greenmen, and hopefully even more. “We’ve never been that much of a soccer school,” senior goalkeeper Bryce Peckinpaugh said. “To see all of the students in the student section, all the families that came out to show up and support even though we didn’t win, it just feels good. “(And) to know that the guys under us, the juniors that are going to be seniors, the sophomores are going to become juniors, and the freshmen who are going to become sophomores, are able to experience what we had with all the fans. It hurts a lot, but I think just seeing the culture develop is something that I will never forget.” It isn’t just the high school players who will be affected by this season, either. “Every time we play, we always think about the community and what we’re leaving to the youth,” McMaster said. “During our youth camp in the summer, you could just tell those guys, they really looked up to us. They thought we were like their heroes, or whatever. It’s good to leave with a state (runner-up) trophy and bring it back to Aurora as a legacy for us.” While Aurora would have rather made the trip home as state champions, the players will rest well tonight knowing what they have started to build. “It would have been a lot better if we came out with the result,” McMaster said. “But we can’t look down on it and can’t be sad that we lost. The fact that we got here as a program, especially after what we’ve been through in our four years, it’s definitely a statement and I’m really proud of it.”
