St. Charles soccer team has eyes on biggest prize
Thursday, September 7, 2023
By Jarrod Ulrey
julrey@cbussports.com
St. Charles sophomore Ryan Sullivan is a standout player as the Cardinals’ starter at center midfielder. Photo: Kevin Rouch
It wasn’t lost on St. Charles sophomore Ryan Sullivan that it was a big deal when his team was ranked No. 2 in the inaugural state boys soccer poll released Sept. 4.
Regular-season accolades, though, aren’t what he and his teammates are seeking.
“Our main goal is to get to the state championship game and win it,” Sullivan said. “We just want to continue to work off that and continue to win.”
Sullivan knows more than most what that might entail despite his limited varsity experience.
In addition to starting at center midfielder last season when the Cardinals went 8-5-6 and reached a Division I district semifinal, he has watched two older brothers excel for the same program and beyond.
Owen Sullivan, a 2019 graduate who now plays for Ohio State, was a sophomore in 2016 for St. Charles when it went 21-1-1 and earned a Division I state runner-up finish.
His other brother is 2023 graduate Colin Sullivan, who was second-team all-state and is now competing for Chatham University.
Their father, Kevin Sullivan, is a 1991 St. Charles graduate who also played for the program.
“(Ryan’s) reputation proceeds him,” coach Chris Vonau said. “He’s been really good on the club scene, and for us, he’s been our most vocal leader as a sophomore. He’s a very cerebral player. He’s the real deal. With him being a sophomore, it’s exciting. He’s just a good kid from a good family. We bounce him around and he can play mostly anywhere.”
Olentangy Berlin’s Ryko Boudurov scores the first of his three goals in the Bears’ 4-1 win at St. Charles Sept. 7. Photo: Kevin Rouch
The Cardinals were 4-1 after losing to Olentangy Berlin 4-1 on Sept. 7.
St. Charles opened its season with four consecutive 1-0 victories, one of which came over 2022 state runner-up New Albany on Aug. 29 with another coming over defending district champion Dublin Jerome on Aug. 22.
On Aug. 19 against Dublin Coffman, the game was scoreless until senior forward Charlie Saas’ goal with two seconds remaining.
“We’ve beaten some teams that we haven’t been able to get wins over for a while like New Albany and Jerome,” said defender Paddy O’Reilly, who is one of seven seniors in the program. “We won one game scoring a goal in the last two seconds, but they’ve all been nice. This team works together really well and is really gritty.”
O’Reilly, who also has two older brothers who played for St. Charles, lines up at left outside back and is the only key returnee on a rebuilt defense line that had been perfect until the loss to Berlin.
Junior Jackson Soder has taken over at goalie after serving in that role on the junior varsity last season, with senior Annam Pham and junior Zeke Shalawylo at center back.
“It’s one of the grittiest, toughest, no-nonsense, do-what-you-ask type of teams,” Vonau said. “They’ve bought in since day one and it’s a great group of leaders. It’s been good to coach these guys for several reasons, but they don’t need much motivating.
“If our goal was to be ranked second in the state at the end of August that would be one thing, but that’s not our goal. I don’t really expect anything other than what it is we’ve gotten from these guys. We’ve had some good fortune so far that we haven’t had in previous years, and that’s not taking anything away from our opponents.”
Under Vonau, who is in his eighth season as coach, the Cardinals also were regional runners-up in 2018, district champions in 2019 and district runners-up in 2021. They’d never won fewer than 12 games in his tenure prior to last season.
With Olentangy Berlin’s Kylar Hickey (right) battling on defense, Eli Bush lines up the score for St. Charles in the Cardinals’ 4-1 home loss Sept. 7. Photo: Kevin Rouch
Through five games, senior midfielder/forward Eli Bush had scored two goals to lead the offense.
Bush had the only goal against Berlin, which led 2-0 at the half before Bush’s score but answered with two second-half scores on a night in which St. Charles celebrated its 50th season of soccer.
“Overall it’s the culture of St. Charles in general that provides us the opportunity,” Vonau said. “It’s a brutally hard academic institution but we very rarely deal with negative personalities because the school expects so much. We talk about discipline, sacrifice and intensity. Those are the three staples of our program. We don’t cut corners and there’s just an accountability.
“We’ve set our sights as high as possible. I definitely knew coming off last year, through liftings and into January that this team came in with a different spirit.”
St. Charles didn’t have much room to breathe after the loss to Berlin considering it travels Sept. 9 to four-time defending Division I state champion Cleveland St. Ignatius, which it lost to 4-0 last season.
The Cardinals open CCL action Sept. 12 at DeSales.
“It’s been going really well,” Ryan Sullivan said. “Early on this season there were probably some doubters out there with all the turnover we had and with the back line being so new.
“I was brand new around the team last year, but with the environment and chemistry, it’s helped my game improve. It’s like a brotherhood, and that’s improved my confidence a lot. On the physical side compared to last year, I’m bigger now and that’s definitely helped, but we’re doing the small things, and keeping it simple has helped. One of the huge things I wanted to improve on this year was my self-confidence and help my teammates get better.”