Alliance, OH- Asking the Marlington Dukes boys soccer team to share the EBC title, or even lose it, does not go over well. The boys in orange–with a year hiatus–are back atop the Eastern Buckeye Conference as they took down Alliance 3-0 to confirm an undefeated conference season.
The big storyline, outside of the conference crown, was the return of Parker Woods after his transfer to Alliance from Marlington.
“We certainly hated to see him go,” remarked Marlington head coach Clayton Cowgill. “He’s a tremendous soccer player, a tremendous athlete, and a good kid.”
Woods would go on to have the first shot of the game, but Brock Swisher was easily able to get the save. While the junior goalkeeper was challenged on multiple occasions, he still earned his ninth clean sheet of the season. What makes this stat even more incredible is the fact that he didn’t allow a goal in EBC play this season.
After the match, Swisher said,
“It [dropping the EBC last season] was really heartbreaking, so getting this back was huge.”
With five minutes left to play in the first half, Marlington junior Iden Tate smashed in a wonderstrike on a free kick well outside the 18-yard box to give the Dukes the 1-0 lead at halftime.
“Going into it, I just practice those all the time and was just confident through the hit and placed it like I know I could,” proclaimed an excited Tate. That was his 11th goal of the year, a team high for the Dukes.
Towards the end of the first half, Marlington’s Andy Frederick came up lame after a lunging attempt at the ball and was subbed out soon after. However, he showed the whole city of Alliance that he was ok by getting the Dukes a brace with just over 25 minutes left to play.
Around five minutes later, Marlington found their ‘cherry on top’ as TJ Guess skillfully went through the Aviator defense to make it 3-0. After 20 more back-and-forth minutes, which included Jacob Schuette being denied one-on-one against Swisher, the Dukes clinched the EBC title as the full-time whistle confirmed the 3-0 victory.
For the first time this season, Allinace has dropped back-to-back games as Louisville defeated them 2-1 at Rockhill on September 25th. As well, this was the biggest defeat for the Aviators in 2025, a margin once held by Canton Central Catholic as they downed A-Town 2-1. The Aviators have St Thomas Aquinas, Akron Garfield, and Streetsboro before the regular season comes to a close with a 7-4-3 record in hand.
As for Marlington, the Dukes are now 11-1-3. With this win over Allinace, MHS is now a top 500 team in the country, coming in at 499 according to MaxPreps. As for the state of Ohio, they are ranked 69th. Saturday is going to be a tough test for the Dukes as they travel to Canton to take on the Federal League champions, GlenOak. Then, it’s a senior night duel with Nordonia. That game will be streamed live on the SmeeSports YouTube Channel.
The goal was simple heading into 2025–get back on top. That’s exactly what the Marlington boys soccer team did. In the words of Tj Guess,
“It feels pretty good.”
Link to rewatch Marlington vs Alliance Soccer: https://www.youtube.com/live/psWY1Uj35oA?si=gMe1nN7X_3i5vxnX
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