Morelli, a former Liberty High School soccer coach, saw the young Britton use his foot skills and eventually impress former Cleveland Crunch assistant coach Joe Raduka at summer camp in the mid 2000s.

Morelli, later on, put Britton in a practice game with some weaker players. Britton’s friends played on the other team. It forced the young Liberty player to work harder and think ahead.

“He still holds that against me,” Morelli laughs.

One thing Britton, who is in his second year as Cardinal Mooney High School’s boys soccer coach, holds dear is his passion on the pitch.

Staff photo / John Vargo Cardinal Mooney boys soccer coach Matt Britton looks on as his team played a Nov. 4 Division III regional semifinal at Creston Norwayne.

For Mooney, Saturday’s win over South Range put Mooney (15-2-4) in tonight’s Division III state semifinal against Toledo Ottawa Hills (15-5-1) at Mansfield’s Arlin Field, home of Mansfield Senior High School, starting at 7 p.m.

“One thing about Matthew is he HATES to lose,” said Morelli, who coached Liberty from 2004-12. “It’s not that he wants to win. He HATES to lose. On somebody that competes, that’s what you look for in a player.

“That player will give absolutely everything they know because they know what the options are — win or lose. If they hate to lose, it’s more of a driving factor because everybody wants to win.”

Britton, a 2009 Liberty High School graduate and kicker for the Leopards football team, coached at the Rockers FC from 2012-14, Canton United and was the head coach at Maplewood High School from 2014-18. The Rockets won a Division III district championship in 2015.

Morelli was president of Ward’s Auto Parts in Warren before he retired recently. Britton worked for him before the store closed.

“I was working for him when I took the job at Maplewood,” Britton said. “I would bounce ideas off of him, pick his brain for advice, simple, easy things like that. He would come to a couple of games. You might want to look at this a little bit more. Of course we disagree sometimes. We see the game differently.

“It was good to get someone else’s opinion.”

Britton finished his first year as Cardinal Mooney High School’s boys soccer coach in October 2019.

His Cardinals team started 3-6, but ended 7-1-1 in their last nine games — ending with a district semifinal loss to 2019 Division III state semifinalist South Range.

Britton wanted an assistant coach in year two. He knew who to call — Morelli.

Britton said he appreciates the honest opinion he gets from his assistant and former coach.

Britton, who was a forward at Liberty, has that good perspective with Morelli, who has more of a defensive perspective to the game.

“It’s just having someone I can bounce ideas off of, knowing I’m going to get an honest answer back,” Britton said. “Not that, ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea. That’ll work.’ I’ll get an honest answer back whether it’s a good idea or it’s not. Just having that trust and knowing that you’re going to get an honest answer back is invaluable.”

Morelli knows he’s an assistant, not Mooney’s head coach.

“The hardest thing for me to do is to not jump in there and do that, to step back and give assistance,” Morelli said. “Give a little bit of wisdom every once in a while. He has grown to be a better coach than me.”

This Mooney team will be tested tonight.

Ottawa Hills won 10 of its last 12 games heading into tonight’s semifinal. They have outscored their opponents 60-16 this season and 29-2 in playoffs.

Mooney (15-2-4) is 12-0-1 in its last 13 games, outscoring teams 68-22 this season and 31-0 in the playoffs.

Walker Kight leads the way for Ottawa Hills with 16 goals and seven assists, while Carson Mackey had 11 goals and nine assists.

The Cardinals are led by Brian Philibin with 22 goals and 10 assists, while Justin Durkin (13 goals, eight assists), Savvas Pizanias (12 goals, nine assists) and Christopher Philibin (11 goals and 11 assists) are familiar names on the scoreboard.

Mooney posted 10 shutouts this season and allowed one goal in six other games, a sign of a good defense and goalkeeping.

Morelli coaches keepers Aidan Markey and Erik Vargo, who have 71 combined saves. Morelli’s role was supposed to be different this season.

“Originally I brought him in to be the JV coach at the start of the season before the COVID-19,” Britton said “We had about 32 kids that signed up to play. We had 20 kids for a JV team. Then the whole COVID mess hit and we dropped down to 22 that we’re at now. His role changed right off the bat. He was going to come in and become a full varsity assistant with the head JV coach. As soon as I had to cut the JV team, he wanted to work with the goalkeepers. The other 20 players I was able to handle. We have two keepers. He basically became the goalkeeper coach. He’s done phenomenal. We have nine shutouts this year. We had four (shutouts) all last year. Granted we’re playing a little longer in the season this year. You can see the improvement in the goalkeepers, their shot-stopping ability, distribution, everything.”

Morelli said he enjoys coaching both keepers.

“They’re like clay,” he said. “You just have to push and mold a little bit. They are learning on their own. You created an environment where they want to improve and you put out there little bits at time of what you’re looking for.”

As for Britton, Morelli’s wife paid him the biggest compliment.

“My wife says, many times, why didn’t one of our daughters marry Matt?” Morelli said. “I tell him that’s his biggest compliment.

“He’s a part of our family. He’s been for a long time.”