Boys soccer: Canaan Stevens' goal sends Open Door past Oberlin and into district final

ELYRIA — When Open Door senior Canaan Stevens had a breakaway opportunity with just under 12 minutes left to play in Thursday's Division V district semifinal against Oberlin, there was no doubt in his mind what he was about to do. "I knew the second I had that breakaway, I knew I was getting that in," Stevens said. "You have to bait the goalie out and just play it low. That's the whole thing. We're only going to win more games from here. We're going to state, we're going to state." Stevens' goal gave the Patriots the lead in what ended up a 3-1 win at Ely Stadium. Eighth-seeded Open Door (11-6-1) hung on from there to advance to Saturday's final at Canfield against 13th-seeded Crestwood, a 4-3 shootout winner over seventh-seeded Lake Ridge on Thursday. Ninth seeded Oberlin finished its year at 11-6-1. Open Door's defense gets a lion's share of the winning effort. Oberlin's only goal came on a corner kick from sophomore Peter Caldwell-Kepner off the head of Isaac Spencer that tied the game at 1 with 16:38 to play in the first half. The Patriots didn't allow another goal from there with goalkeeper Micah Brooks credited with five saves. "The defense played great," Open Door coach Joel Baker said. "One silly mistake on a corner kick but other than that, they held them out. That was really good." Senior co-captain Brayden Dorsey broke the ice for Open Door with a goal with 33:09 to play in the first half. He found himself open with the ball about 20 yards in front of the goal and pounded it past Oberlin's John McMillion-Jarven, who had 16 saves on the night. Open Door outshot Oberlin 25-7. "Brayden's a heck of a player," Baker said. "Some didn't go in but he had a lot of opportunities. Canaan and Brayden have scored a lot of goals for us this year. They both played extremely well." "We started out strong, moving the ball and getting our passes," Dorsey said. "We kind of lost our style of play for awhile but in the second half we got back to playing our style." Open Door and Dorsey in particular had numerous chances to score in the first half but just missed either wide or high of the goal. Dorsey had scored off a pass from Ellison Dueck late in the first half the goal was nullified on an offside call. Finally, Stevens broke free with the ball and made good on his effort with 11:35 to play in the game. Senior Jonas Pruitt put the icing on the victory owith a high-arching shot intended to go out of bounds to run out the clock but it found the net, giving the Patriots their final goal. "Believe it or not, that was his first varsity goal," Baker said. "It was one of those things where you say, 'thank you, Jesus' that it went to the back of the net. That was awesome." "I was so happy to put it in with time running out," said Pruitt, with a touch of laryngitis. "I saw the keeper out trying to get a clear and it went through the frames." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com. Open Door 3, Oberlin 1 GOALS: (OD) Brayden Dorsey, Canaan Stevens, Jonas Pruitt. (O) Isaac Spencer ASSISTS: (O) Peter Caldwell-Kepner SHOTS: Open Door 25, Oberlin 7 SAVES: (OD) Micah Brooks 5; (O) John McMillion-Jarven 16 CORNER KICKS: Open Door 7, Oberlin 3 PENALTY KICKS: Open Door 1, Oberlin 1 YELLOW CARDS: (O) Ashton Stevens HALFTIME: 1-1