Cleveland Heights Girls Soccer Faces Rival Shaker Today

The girls soccer head coach Robbie Helfgott said the team hasn't defeated rival Shaker Heights in at least seven years, maybe longer.

But he thinks today may be the day.

The Tigers will take on Shaker Heights at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10 at Shaker.

"With Shaker moving on from the Lake Erie League this season and no longer in our district during the state tournament, this is an old-fashioned, backyard rivalry between neighbors that our girls look forward to every year," said Helfgott, who is in his fourth season as head coach. "Every year our girls want to be first to finally break the streak. We are hoping that this year is the year."

The team's record is 3-1 (2-0 LEL), and Helfgott said the girls had a tough start to the season. The Tigers lost 9-0 to powerhouse Solon High School on Aug. 25, but since then, Helfgott said the girls have been very focused.

"We had a Conference game against Warren Harding Wednesday (Sept. 5). We dominated play from start to finish. It was 2-0 after the first 10 minutes. (The score was) 3-0 by halftime and 5-0 with 25 minutes left in the game, which is how it remained. Chloe Sudduth (senior captain) had all five goals and Kalah Saunders (junior) had three assists. Everyone played well in this one and contributed to our second shutout in three games," Helfgott said.

The team has two other games this week, that Helfgott says "are not as big on bragging rights, but equally important to our season."

The girls will take on Madison High School on Wednesday.

"Madison is in our district for the state tournament and a good result against them is important to ensuring a high seeding, or ranking, in our district to guarantee we have as many home games as possible," Helfgott said. "Madison is usually a pretty close game and they are pretty hard to beat at home."

And the Tigers will face Euclid High School on Euclid's turf Saturday.

"Euclid would be our third game in our conference and with another win, we would firmly take control of the conference race. One of our goals is to win the LEL Championship," Helfgott said. "With Mentor and Shaker no longer in our conference, we feel like this is an absolute must to call our season a success."