Sophie Khelashvili’s PK Goal Clinches Upper Arlington’s First State Championship

Columbus — Upper Arlington senior Sophie Khelashvili had sky-high confidence as she stepped to the penalty spot in the 52nd minute.

“I’ve been practicing PKs since I was really little, so I don’t get nervous,” Khelashvili said. “I knew that my practice would get me the result I needed.”

Fellow senior Lillian Schilling didn’t even run on the PK because she knew that Khelashvili was going to bury it.

“She’s just that good,” Schilling said.

That confidence paid off. Khelashvili buried her shot into the bottom-right corner, giving the Golden Bears a 1–0 lead over Seton.

And that strike proved to be the difference: the goal that powered Upper Arlington to the first state championship in program history, a 1–0 win over Seton on Saturday night at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus.

First-year coach Jared Dombrowski beamed with pride at his program’s ascent to the top of high school soccer in Ohio.

“This is a program that has had some success, and I’m just very fortunate to have worked with these young ladies,” he said. “I couldn’t be prouder of the program as a whole. They did everything they could to win this game and it showed.”

On a night when a penalty kick stole the spotlight, Upper Arlington’s defense absorbed plenty of pressure, and goalkeeper Alina Montero came up with several key stops to preserve the clean sheet.

Montero denied a Lexi Voelkerding shot in the 32nd minute to keep the match scoreless at halftime. Late in the second half, she turned away a dangerous free kick from Kacie Noble near the top post, and then stopped one more Voelkerding attempt to seal the win.

Senior center back Anaya Jones spoke on the physicality that Seton brought in the game.

“I think both teams were just trying their hardest to get everything out of it,” Jones said. “All you are trying to do is stop the ball from getting into your net, so that means putting your body on the line sometimes.”

The teams combined for 15 shots, nine corner kicks and 20 fouls in a match ultimately decided by a penalty kick.

Coach Dombrowski acknowledged how close Seton came at times and how much the Golden Bears dug in to finish the job.

“They were knocking around the area quite a bit in the first and second half,” he said. “It came down to if we were going to keep our nerve. We bent a little bit, but the back line did an incredible job of keeping them at bay.”

While the team did their due diligence, Schilling says that it ultimately came down to Upper Arlington just doing what they do best.

“We just were going to come in and play our game,” she said. “Our depth is just amazing and everyone on this team does their part. We just went in with confidence and love for our team.”