GAYLORD ― Last season, the Gaylord girls soccer team broke in a relatively young roster with many new starters, hoping to compete for another district title and build a strong connection for the future.
They fell short of back-to-back district championships, but that connection built up in 2025 seems to be paying dividends already in 2026.
The Blue Devils began their season with a 2-1 loss to Frankenmuth on April 10, but got to play their first home game and their Big North Conference opponent in Traverse City Central on Tuesday, April 14. GHS (1-1, 1-0 BNC) showed a mix of talent, experience and familiarity in coach Chris Adams’s system as they came away with a 3-1 victory over the Trojans, tallying a key conference victory early in the season and showing signs that the Blue Devils are true conference title competitors in 2026.
“TC Central, they’re a strong, young team and they are every year,” said coach Adams. “The girls played really well today. They pretty much dominated the performance, I think (TC Central) had one shot on target, and it was a penalty. I’m really happy with the defensive performance and throughout the whole team.”
Here are the key takeaways from a key early-season victory:
GHS roster has mix of experience, youth heading into 2026
The 2025 GHS girls soccer team was relatively young, having just two seniors on a roster that went 9-9-2 overall and finished fourth in the BNC. This season, they return many of the starters from a year ago, bringing a lineup that has speed, athleticism and experience playing alongside one another.
That mix is what makes them dangerous, and it showed early on against the Trojans.
It took less than five minutes for sophomore Khloe Van Oosten to get the Blue Devils on the board, while junior Ella Cherwinski extnded the lead to 2-0 about seven minutes of game time later. In the second half, a TC Central goal off a penalty kick brought the Trojans within a goal, but with 20 minutes remaining, Cherwinski burst through the defense and netted her second goal of the game, putting the game firmly in GHS’s control until the clock hit zero.
It usually takes a few games, even for talented teams, to get the feel for what they need to be doing this early in the season, but the familiarity GHS’s roster has with each other is helping the Blue Devils hit the ground running early on.
“I’ve got a great group of girls who really want to push and drive each other to be better,” said Adams. “That’s the perfect thing for a coach, right? You want a team who is driven, that wants to improve every practice and every game.”
“We’ve been playing together since we were younger, we play travel together, so we know all the connections and how we play,” said Ella Cherwinski. “It’s just good to come back after a club season and find our fit with each other now.”
Ella Cherwinski leading the Blue Devils’ attack
There were more than a few games in 2025 where Gaylord’s Ella Cherwinksi left the field visibly frustrated.
The Blue Devils believed they were better than fourth best in the BNC last season, and a talented forward like Cherwinski held herself and her team to a high standard. Coach Adams, knowing what his striker was capable of, knew he needed to strike a balance; allow her to hold herself to that high standard while not letting her get too down on herself.
“Ella’s one of the best strikers we’ve ever had in the program,” said Adams. “Sometimes she gets in her own head. We’ve spoken about it a bunch. When she fires, she’s just incredible, she’s unstoppable, and I’m terrified for other teams that have to deal with her. She’s her own worst critic, but that’s not a bad thing, right? That shows me she’s passionate, she wants to continue to do good things and continue to improve.”
She showed that improvement on Tuesday and left the field with a smile on her face after a two-goal performance and a key BNC victory.
“It feels good because conference games didn’t really go our way last year, so it feels good to get back and get a win under our belt,” said Cherwinski.
Contact GHT Sports Editor Dylan Jespersen at Djespersen@gaylordheraldtimes.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @dylanjespersen, and Instagram, @dylanjespersen
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Gaylord girls soccer overwhelms TC Central in first league challenge
Reporting by Dylan Jespersen, The Petoskey News-Review / The Petoskey News-Review
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
