A couple things:
Whereas in the past teams were apt to sit back and defend as long as possible even if it meant extra time, this years group of champions just kept coming and coming and coming. The pressure was on and mistakes were punished.
While the girls games involved some closer games with teams with similar ideas the boys games seemed to all feature one team wanting to kill off the game while the other was really pushing all game. In Iggy's case that damn broke early. In Howland and Mariemont's cases it broke open right before the half and the flood gates really opened in the second half.
Not that those teams weren't also good defensively. Howland, Iggy and Mariemont combined to concede only 32 goals all year in 67 games.
It made for some very entertaining games to watch where we got to see some excellent players really shine on the biggest of stages.
As far as what can other programs do?
While I'm not sure every team has the players or desire to attack the way these teams did, I think it should open the eyes of coaches that playing not to lose gets you only so far. You don't have to come out and attack for 80 minutes, but I think you need a plan B where being able to switch things up midstream for stretches can make you even harder to beat. Too many defense first teams give up a goal and seem to have no idea how to get that goal back.
Love the response, Salad76.
There's no question that the winning teams this year displayed superior attacks (alongside excellent defenses). I'm slower to judge their opposition with the phrase of "killing off the game" for a few reasons.
1.) Teams being put on the backs of their feet often don't have the same talent as their opponents. I've become a big fan of Howland over the past few weeks (watching many YouTube videos of their team through the past several seasons). Nonetheless, in their regional semifinal win against Bay, it was said that Howland recorded 0 shots on goal for the entire game (lone goal of the game was scored on a highly disputed penalty kick). I doubt Howland went into the game with the desire to park the bus, but that was what they did to win.
2.) In two of the girls games (D2 and D3), the seemingly weaker overall teams (heavily outshot and even more heavily outpossessed) ended up winning the games. To be fair, the winning teams -- Madison Comprehensive and Kirtland -- both had the best offensive individual player in their respective games, but if those championship games were played multiple times, I could see highly different outcomes with similar criticisms of the losing squads (Madison and Granville did tie 2-2 in the regular season; in both of their games Granville failed to convert a pk).
3.) Speaking from personal experience, my team won a state championship in what may have been the statistically dullest state final in history. We ended up winning a 0-0 pk shootout. The previous 22 games, we were always on the attack. Even in our tight regional final and state semifinal wins, I would say we carried the play (our opponents may beg to differ). In the final, we played a CVCA team with an extraordinary defense and ahead of their time possession. Combined with the wide Crew field, we spent 100 minutes chasing the ball and defending with 11. We had only one good chance the entire game (CVCA had only one in regulation...but two great chances in overtime). We did what we had to do. (When we repeated the following season, despite being a weaker team, we were much more on the offensive.)
I realize my three points are all essentially the same. It's hard to attack when the other team is stronger than you are. But I would also acknowledge that the game is improving, and maybe superior teams now more than ever are able to avoid upsets that were more possible 10-20 years ago (though Mariemont was losing with 6 minutes to go in a sectional final against Cincinnati Country Day; credit to them for being able to come back from being down 2 goals). And the possibilities of a blowout in the state final are increasing. If you want to have that Plan B, you'd better have a lot of players working on their skills and athleticism between now and next November.