By Roger Gordon

Correspondent

The Rootstown boys soccer team’s 14-0 victory on Sept. 29 at Garfield not only upped its record to 10-1-1, but also gave longtime head coach Charlie Voth his 261st career win as the Rovers head coach, tying him with Dean Dunlavy (Southeast girls) for the most all-time in Portage County history.

Charlie Voth speaks with Michael Farkash during the 2021 season.
Stephanie Farkash/Special to Portage Sports

Rootstown, which has outscored its last four opponents a combined 26-0, allowed just a single shot on goal against the G-Men. Voth attributed his team’s phenomenal defense this season to senior Caleb Fillmore and junior Daniell Strebler in the middle and senior outside backs Brayden Dougherty and Dean Abdlrasul.

“The four of them have been playing with each other ever since they were kids. They know how they move,” he said. “They’re big and fast, they’re good in the air and they talk. They’re very good. It’s very hard to get a breakaway on them.”

Offensively in the win over Garfield, senior forward Zach Pastor scored a whopping five goals and notched two assists, while classmate Sam Textor achieved a hat trick.

Five nights earlier, on Sept. 24 at home, the Rovers rode a 3-0 halftime lead to a 7-0 victory over Canton Central Catholic.

“We had the first 10 to 18 minutes,” said the coach. “Then Central Catholic made adjustments at midfield. They went from three to four and added another defender. They were playing pretty even with us the rest of the half, but in the second half everything was clicking for us.”

Leading the way offensively were Pastor, who scored two goals, and senior right halfback Tycho Smolk, who had a goal and two assists.

“What makes Zach such a good player is positioning. He knows how to set himself up one-on-one with a player. He knows where everybody is on the field,” said Voth. “He’s a great passer, and if you do a great pass, 10-1 he’ll get another pass to him on a one-two to make things work. He’s just a sharpshooter. He knows where the keeper is and he knows where to put the ball.

“Tycho is a disciplined player, he’s like an engineer. He likes to see how everything moves around, and then he’ll draw a person in and he’ll hit the open person. He’s a good one-on-one player, but he looks to pass first, and that makes him really dangerous. But if he gets the ball back in the middle, then he’ll put it away nine out of 10 times.”

Senior goalkeeper Noah Zager had three saves.

“Noah had a good game,” Voth said. “He’s started to put some good things together. He’s making one to two great saves a game. The fact that he only made three saves says a lot for our defense and our midfielders because you win the game at midfield. Senior Bryson Scarlett controls that as our center halfback, and he creates our offense as he pushes up.”

The Rovers are ranked seventh in the state in Division V and hope to improve on their regional semifinal berth last year.