By ADAM FERRISE

Special to The Gazette

Chris Matejka loves to relive the moment captured on video, but it’s also still fresh in his memory.

The video depicts Matejka letting loose with a primal scream, posing for pictures and celebrating with his Cloverleaf teammates after a 2-1 win at Brecksville, which later in the season lost just 1-0 in overtime to regional finalist North Royalton in the district semifinals.

During the Sept. 24 match, Matejka’s Cloverleaf team went behind 1-0, but he scored two goals to give the Colts a win that every senior on the team listed as the favorite moment of his career.

It was especially gratifying for Matejka because Brecksville had knocked the Colts out of the playoffs the year before.

The game was the highlight of his remarkable career, showcasing why Matejka is the 2008 Gazette MVP for boys soccer.

“He makes Cloverleaf a dangerous team,” said Wadsworth coach John Johnson, whose team played against Matejka in the Suburban League in each of the last four seasons. “He is by far one of the top players in the county.

“We’ve watched him tear teams apart. He’s not very big. It looks like you can knock him over, but he plays hard and has great sportsmanship. He plays with a tremendous amount of heart, which makes him an even better player.”

This season, Matejka, who is considering continuing his soccer career at Ohio Northern, the College of Wooster or Hiram, scored 14 goals and assisted on seven, meaning he had a hand in 57 percent of Cloverleaf’s 37 goals scored this season.

Cloverleaf coach Wally Senk said Matejka only left the field twice this season.

The center midfielder scored two goals against Cuyahoga Falls, Barberton, Broadview Heights Brecksville and Nordonia and three times in a 5-0 win over Akron Ellet.

The Colts were 6-1-1 in games where he scored multiple goals.

Matejka’s talent did not go unnoticed in the state, as he was named second-team All-Ohio.

“Because he does the things he does, it takes pressure off the other players,” Senk said. “Defenses target him because he’s capable of scoring goals, but if they step up and guard him, it opens up channels for his teammates and he’ll drop off passes to them.”

Senk said Matejka’s strength is his precise placement of dead-ball kicks, while Johnson, who called Matejka “deadly on set plays,” said he always put an extra defender in front of the ball when Matejka lined up for a free kick.

During the Brecksville game, Matejka watched Brecksville’s goalkeeper directing the wall in front of him, expecting a pass. He put a shot barely inside the cross bar, catching the keeper off guard to give the Colts a 2-1 edge they wouldn’t relinquish.

“I think it was good that we came out and gave our best effort,” Matejka said of the Brecksville game. “It was one of the few games where we worked as a team throughout the entire game. If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have won.”

Matejka’s success on the field was vital to the Colts throughout his four-year varsity career.

What Josh Mewhinney will remember most, however, is how Matejka helped him learn the center midfielder position. Mewhinney played alongside Matejka at the midfielder position the last two seasons and the junior captain will likely assume some of Matejka’s roles as a senior next season.

When Mewhinney was a sophomore and in his first full varsity season, he said Matejka worked with him on how to play the position, always keeping track of where everyone else was on the field and what his responsibilities were as a center mid.

“I looked up to him a lot as a sophomore because I wanted to play alongside him and play just as good or better,” Mewhinney said. “I think we’ll miss the leadership that’s always been there. The last couple of years he has been a big part of the team as well as his abilities on the field.”

Ferrise may be reached at sports@ohio.net.