Dublin Jerome's defending state champions blanked Hilliard Davidson 2-0 on Aug. 19, scoring both goals late to push their record to 3-0 on the young season.

Pedro Ferreira Maamud opened the scoring with an assist from Neidenthal, and Ishida added the second off a feed from Sean Dempsey. Goalkeeper Wichlinski earned the shutout at the Jerome Jungle.

The school's athletics department noted the late surge on X, writing that the Celtics "scored 2 late goals to defeat Hilliard Davidson."

The win continues a blistering start for head coach Nate Maust's squad, which entered the fall ranked No. 2 in Ohio by cleveland.com's preseason Top 20. Jerome opened Aug. 13, with a 4-2 road win at Paul Laurence Dunbar, then routed Henry Clay 8-3 the following day. Maamud has scored in all three contests, while Fritter tallied four goals against Henry Clay alone.

The Celtics are defending the program's first-ever OHSAA Division I state championship. Jerome defeated Cleveland St. Ignatius 3-2 in a match decided by penalty kicks (4-3 in the shootout) last November at Historic Crew Stadium, capping a 15-3-5 season. Dempsey, who converted the decisive penalty in that final, returned for 2026 and recorded an assist against Davidson on Wednesday.

"We didn't come to a state final to tie or lose. We came to win," Maust said after the November title game, according to the Columbus Dispatch. That edge has carried into the new campaign.

The Celtics lost Brady Delmore, who scored both goals in the state final, to graduation. But the early returns suggest Jerome has reloaded. Maust, the only head coach in the program's 21-year history, has his group outscoring opponents 14-5 through three games.

Jerome's next game had not been announced as of Aug. 21.