Staff photo / Greg Macafee. Howland's Jak Kenney (18) and teammates celebrate during the Tigers' win over Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in the Division III regional final. Howland advanced to the state final four with its victory.

TWINSBURG — When the Howland Tigers headed to Twinsburg on Saturday for a Division III regional final matchup with Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, they were expecting a defensive battle.

“We were definitely working on penalty kicks a lot this week,” Howland head coach Brian Stiles said.

But, as it turned out, the Tigers didn’t need penalty kicks, or even overtime, to take down the Royals as senior forward Jak Kenney tallied two goals, one in each half, and the Tigers punched their ticket back to the state final four with a 2-1 victory.

“We were in the final four two years ago and to get back there, with this group, it just feels great,” Stiles said. “I’m so proud of the boys.”

As expected it was a defensive battle for most of the game, but each offense showed signs of life in each half. The Tigers were the first to strike in the 14th minute when Kenney found the back of the net for his first of the game.

The senior striker’s goal came after the Tigers built up their possession through the middle of the field and Vasili Gentis carried a ball into the attacking third. As Kenney worked to stay onside, Gentis fed a perfect through ball, and Kenney snuck a shot past CVCA goalie Luke Slabaugh from the left side of the box to the far right post.

“Our center back (Gentis) is known for dribbling up, so as soon as he started coming up, I knew he was going to play a perfect ball and I have scored that goal a lot before from him,” Kenney said. “So I knew it was coming, and I knew that it was going in.”

Throughout the rest of the first half, the two teams battled back and forth for possession, and both created opportunities for themselves.

The Royals put pressure on Howland’s defense with long throw-ins in the attacking third throughout the game, but each time, Howland goalie Zach Lewis came out of the goal mouth to snatch the ball out of the air.

With about six minutes remaining in the first half, Lewis collided with a Royals forward and after spending time on the ground, was forced to exit the game. Robert Kopey spelled Lewis in the net, and the defense cleared back-to-back corner kicks on the ensuing play to keep their 1-0 lead intact heading into the half.

CVCA found its equalizer 11 minutes into the second half when Carson Reske freed himself up in front of the Howland net and fired a shot past Lewis to tie the game at one.

In what was supposed to be a defensive battle, it didn’t take long for the Tigers to answer back as Kenney finished off a Pasquale Carannante free kick — from the back side yet again — to put his time back in front.

This time it was for good.

Stiles said that heading into the contest they knew that the back side was the part of the defense that they wanted to attack.

“It was just a matter of executing it,” Stiles said. “We did a really good job early on and then we got a little too defensive there for part of the game. Then, when the other team scored, it kinda woke us back up. It was a very strange type of match.”

The Tigers held off a few more Royals chances late in the game but were ultimately able to hold onto the win.

After scoring 58 goals this season, the Tigers have had a defensive focus for most of the postseason, but the Howland offense has been strong over the past two games and has scored five goals combined.

“It’s been the same approach for us,” Kenney said. “We’ve just been able to put the ball into the back of the net.”

Now the Tigers will return back to the state final four. During their 2019 run, the Tigers defeated Lexington 3-2 to reach the state finals where they fell to Tippecanoe, 1-0. Now the Tigers are just looking to solidify their defense before taking on Shawnee, who defeated Revere 3-2 on Saturday, in the state semifinals on Wednesday.

“We gotta tighten up the back line again, keep working on what our biggest strength is, and just like every other team we have to keep working on what our weaknesses are in order to make sure we’re playing our best game. These are chances you don’t always get in your high school career. So we gotta take advantage of it.”

gmacafee@tribtoday.com