Preview: Talawanda girls soccer begins postseason action away at Purcell Marian

The girls sit in a circle chatting with one another. One by one, they’ve shown up to the football field with backpacks on and cleats in hand. And while, from an outside perspective, this may seem like any ordinary practice, the culmination of a full regular season (and the practices within it) are at stake. 

The postseason has arrived for the Talawanda High School girls soccer team.

For some teams, games in the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) bracket are against familiar opponents. The players and coaches know what to expect even outside of the film. 

For others, they’re encroaching on new territory against unfamiliar teams in different stadiums, with crowds who are even more amped up because of the implications. 

The story for the Lady Brave soccer program, while the regular season was filled with ups and downs, is looking for more consistency when it matters most. 

Seeded 12th in the Southwest District, Talawanda heads into its first postseason match against the 11-seed Purcell Marian High School Cavaliers of Cincinnati. 

Finishing fourth out of six teams in the Southwestern piece of the Southwestern Buckeye League (SWBL) standings, the Lady Brave are looking to prove doubters wrong in the postseason. A record of 8-7-2 (3-5-2 in-conference) put them into the 12th seed in the Southwest 2 Sectional bracket of Division III. Purcell Marian, on the other hand, is seeded 11th, meaning the match could play close when it’s all said and done. 

With two losses to start the year, the Lady Brave followed it up by winning five straight games and allowing only one goal over that span. The team’s biggest win (and one that would have the crown the rest of the season) was a 14-0 drubbing against Mount Healthy High School. 

Then, the results varied as conference play began. 

The last match of the five-game win streak was a 1-0 win at home over Franklin High School. But the next was a 6-0 defeat at the hands of the Ross High School Rams, who are ranked 12th in the state of Ohio, first in the Division III bracket and, more importantly, could be Talawanda’s opponent if they were to emerge victorious from the game against Purcell Marian. 

Including the loss to the Rams, Talawanda went 1-3-2 over its next six matches, bringing the team’s overall record to 6-5-2 and in-conference standing to 2-3-2 to begin the month of October.

Over the final four games of the season, the Lady Brave alternated results. A 6-0 defeat of Reading High School in a non-conference matchup was followed by a 6-1 loss at the hands of Bellbrook High School, who is seeded third in the district playoffs.

A 7-0 defeat of Edgewood High School in the second-to-last game of the regular season put Talawanda back in good spirits, but a road trip to Bellbrook saw another monster defeat, 7-0.

While the record doesn’t necessarily jump out, the strength of schedule within Talawanda’s conference cannot be overstated. And it’s within that strength that Head Coach Darrel Davis believes his team can find themselves against Purcell Marian – a team that he and Assistant Coach Mike Buell haven’t been able to watch much film on but still understand will be a tough task.

“(Mike) watches the film on them, and then we talk about what we can do,” Davis said. “I want to focus more on what we do, and to make sure that we focus on the things that we're good at and keep out of situations where we might be vulnerable. We know it's going to be very challenging, but we've done this over the season against the Rosses and the Monroes and the Bellbrooks, so we feel like we are prepared physically, mentally for for this game because we've been in this situation.”

The Cavaliers finished the season with a 10-5-0 record (4-1-0 in-conference) in the Miami Valley Conference (MVC). They tied with Miami Valley Christian High School for second place in their league behind Cincinnati Christian High School, who ended the season with 5-1-0 conference record but an 8-8-0 overall record.

Unlike Talawanda, Purcell Marian’s results were consistent throughout most of the season. 

Wins and losses came in streaks. The Cavaliers emerged victorious in the first seven games of the year, then lost two before winning three more to close out September and open October. To cap the season off, the last three games were losses, including the team’s biggest single-game deficit to Taylor High School, 11-1. 

Two teams with two different waves of a season will match up against one another, and both have a primary player of attack. For Talawanda, it’s senior Jaklyn Wynn, who scored the second most goals in the entire SWBL this season with 18 in 15 games played. The next closest on the roster is junior forward Brooklyn Porchowsky with six. 

As for Purcell Marian, they roster the leading goal and point scorer in the MVC, sophomore striker, Tylee Littlejohn. 

After a freshman season where she scored 30 goals and registered two assists in 17 games, Littlejohn returned to the pitch and posted 24 goals and four assists in 14 games. Interestingly, her capabilities don’t just lie at the front of the Cavaliers’ formation, but at the back as well, as she can play goalkeeper if asked. 

Sophomore Lennon Newton is the next-highest goal scorer for Purcell Marian, ranking eighth amongst her MVC counterparts with 13 tallies on the season.

Traveling for games in the regular season is a typical, somewhat mundane occurrence. But being on the road for a playoff game can mean very different things to every team. There’s a discomfort to an unfamiliar stadium, and that will certainly be a challenge as the Lady Brave emerge from the bus.

“It's really difficult to leave the comforts of your home, even in life itself,” Davis said. “But we've done it before. I expect that our players will rise to the occasion. I can't control the players. We can only set it up and provide a structure and incentives and motivation, but they play the actual game, and so I think we will see them rise to the occasion, and I'm super hopeful about that.”

However, given the nature of postseason sports and, more specifically, postseason soccer, emotions are bound to be high. A win means one more game – one more chance to show what the team is made of – and, of course, another opportunity for the outgoing players to take the field. A loss means the end.

With so much on the line, an important factor is the anticipation, emotions and feelings. And for the Talawanda coaching staff, figuring out how to hone it and focus on their game will give them the best chance to win.

“I think it's just managing player excitement,” Davis said. “It's the emotional part of it. We’ve never played them, as far as I know, so managing expectations and the unknown, and helping folks kind of focus on what we do and less about what you know they do. We’re just trying to help our players focus on us.” 

Talawanda and Purcell Marian square off at 7 p.m. on Thursday Oct. 22, 2026, at Staubauch Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio.