Marshfield (OnFocus) – The Division 2 State Soccer Semifinals and Final will be held at Marshfield High School on Saturday, and the lineup includes one area team, Medford, that is competing for the title.
To preview the games, we reached out to the Head Coaches of all four teams in Division 2 to get their thoughts on this season and state playoff outlook. We thank Roncalli/Two Rivers Head Coach Chris Corrao and Medford Head Coach Nathan Bilodeau for their comments.
Division 2
Semifinals
#2 Roncalli/Two Rivers (12-1-1) vs. #3 Medford (9-3-1) – 11 a.m.
#1 Delavan-Darien (11-2) vs. #4 Sauk Prairie (10-2-3) – 2 p.m.
Division 2 Championship
Winners of the Semifinals – 7 p.m.
Roncalli/Two Rivers
Head Coach Chris Corrao
OnFocus: What were the factors in your team achieving regular season success?
Corrao:
- Commitment to the game plan.
- Master the fundamentals – approach tactically using a building block approach
- Get fit
- Get players, teachers, administrators, parents and community to believe there is something special here.
- Show respect to these athlete’s, support on and off the field
- Understand the needs of multi-sport student athlete’s
- Execute, Execute, Execute
OnFocus: What have been the keys to your postseason success?
Corrao:
- Convincing the team they can play with anyone on any day.
- Staying healthy
- Meaningful focused training sessions
OnFocus: What are your keys to winning at state?
Corrao:
- Simply stated we must remain physically and mentally tough and approach each game separately and not get ahead of ourselves.
- Be hyper-focused on the ask at hand in the game we are playing.
Medford
Head Coach Nathan Bilodeau
OnFocus: What were the factors in your team achieving regular season success?
Bilodeau: We were hit with Covid Quarantine in the 2nd week of regular season. With Covid and a few injuries we had 7 of our 11 starters out and we lost back to back conference games (3 in a row). With a lot of guys wanting to chalk the season up as a loss, we had a lot of upper classmen step up and begin to lead our team to success. We are a very young team and with less experience, it’s easy to hang your head and want to give up but our upper classmen didn’t allow this to happen.
With the great leadership on our team, we continued to win every week and the chance at making a run at state become more and more realistic. Overcoming the adversity early in the season gave this team a huge vote of confidence and since our back to back losses we have not lost a game and only allowed 2 goals.
OnFocus: What have been the keys to your postseason success?
Bilodeau: The will to win on this team is amazing. There are games that we were tied at half time and we would regroup and refocus and come out on top by the end of the game. These guys play for each other, not for me or their parents, but for each other. Our team is a family and we are extremely supportive of one another and hold each other to a very high standard. This team has no quit and works hard every week to ensure a win at game time.
OnFocus: What are your keys to winning at state?
Bilodeau: Most importantly we need to play our game. We are a possessive team and we love to control the game. If we deviate from playing our game especially at the state level, we get all out of sorts and don’t mesh well. Having a solid week of practice has been helpful as well as the team is focused and determined to win. Another aspect to winning at state is to remember that we are now playing the best of the best, our level of play needs to be that much better. Passes need to be crisper, our speed needs to be faster, we need to be more physical, all of those needs need to be the absolute best they’ve been all season long.
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Author: David Keech
David Keech is a retired teacher and works as a sportswriter, sports official and as an educational consultant. He has reported on amateur sports since 2011, known as 'KeechDaVoice.' David can be reached at [email protected]
