Brothers serve up history: Ontario duo joins five state-bound Lex players

PORT CLINTON — What do you do if you’ve just put your stamp on a historical achievement? If you’re brothers Pablo and Hector Sanchez Vidal you just keep going, looking for more.

On Thursday, the Spanish siblings won both of their doubles matches in the opening session of the Division II district tennis tournament in Port Clinton to become the first state qualifiers in the history of the boys program at Ontario.

But they didn’t stop there.

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On Saturday morning, they stunned Lexington’s Karl Etzel and Owan Gongwer 6-4, 6-1 to reach the finals. They lost to Lex’s Ethan Remy and Dylan Catanese 6-0, 6-0 in the championship match, but by then Pablo and Hector had left their imprint.

Not only did they become trailblazers for Ontario, advancing to state Thursday and Friday at the College of Wooster, but thanks to their victory over Etzel and Gongwer — their breakthrough to the finals marked the first time since 2019 that Lex did not produce all of the finalists in district doubles.

Making it even more shocking is that one week earlier, in the sectional semifinals, Etzel and Gongwer easily took care of Pablo and Hector 6-0, 6-1.

“They were on fire today, the best I’ve ever seen them play,” Ontario coach Cary Carcione said of her table-turning tandem. “The fact that they’re going to state together as brothers is so cool … truly amazing.

“They were locked in from the very beginning of the match. They were pumped up and ready to go. The chemistry was really great today. I truly believe in their hearts they knew they could do it and had something to prove.”

Pablo and Hector roared out to a 5-0 lead in the first set. Etzel, heading to state for the fourth time, and Gongwer, the 2023 News Journal Co-Player of the Year, climbed back to within 5-4, but never got over the hump or seized momentum in the second set.

“It was dicey there for a minute, but Hector and Pabo kept playing,” Carcione said. “You could see their confidence level improving and you could see Lex struggle. It’s hard to see a team that good have a bad day, but you can’t play high level tennis every match.”

Ontario athletic director Jeff Fisher was overseeing the Division II district track meet at the school when he received word that Pablo, a senior, and Hector, a sophomore, had reached the finals.

“First off, they’re great kids, great teammates,” Fisher said. “They’re easy to talk to. They look you in the eye when you have a conversation. Great job mom and dad (Pablo and Cristina), raising two fantastic kids.

“Competing for that No. 1 spot on the team, Pablo held off Hector in a friendly competition. But when they really melded was at the Lexington Invitational (one of the top invites in the state). Cary decided to team them up in doubles to see where it would lead them. Sometimes that backfires, but the way they’ve been playing, especially the last two weeks, they’ve earned the opportunity to play in Wooster.”

Lex coach Ron Schaub, who doubles as the teaching pro at Lakewood Racquet Club, couldn’t be happier for Pablo and Hector if he coached them himself. Especially since they spend so much time at Lakewood hitting with Lex’s players.

“That’s so cool that Cary got a team to state and I’m so happy for those guys,” Schaub said. “Pablo and Hector played hard. I can’t even say we didn’t play up to our standards. They just took it right to us in the semis. They played awesome.”

Overall, it was another great district tournament for Lex. They advanced five of their six district qualifiers to state, with Catanese and Remy winning a repeat doubles title and Cooper Remy, Ethan’s younger brother, winning his first three singles matches before losing in the finals.

In eight sets played over two days, Catanese and Ethan Remy won five of them without losing a a game.

“It’s crazy,” said Catanese, who has now won 12 varsity doubles titles with another year to go. “We definitely played our match in the finals against Pablo and Hector. We just really focused like any other match we play. We’ve played them before in practice, so we kind of knew what to do strategy-wise.

“We couldn’t take them lightly or for granted. They’re a really good team. When they got going, they were really good. But Ethan and I are playing really good right now.”

Starting with their title together at the Lex Invite, Remy and Catanese have increasingly looked like a tandem that will reach the second day of the state tourney. That would guarantee them first team All-Ohio honors.

“Ethan’s groundstrokes are really, really solid,” Schaub said. “He can hit returns like nobody’s business. When teams try to serve and volley, he returns it right at their feet. And Dylan’s really good at the net. They’re jelling, and hopefully that continues Thursday at state.”

Cooper Remy opened with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Ada’s Nathan Williams and then clinched a state berth by outlasting Vermilion’s Severin Kretchner — a 2023 district finalist — 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in the quarters.

Remy reached the finals, thanks to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Bryan’s Landon Bassett, but lost to fellow sophomore Jack Kayse of Ottawa Hills 6-0, 6-2 with the title on the line.

“(Kayse) has a little more experience than Cooper, but Coop played great until that match,” said Schaub, who used the younger Remy and freshman Philip Etzel in singles the last two weeks after deciding to pair his top four players in doubles for the post-season.

“Coop’s only been playing No. 1 kids. Every school’s got a pretty good No. 1 player who works at it, but out of all those players it’s Coop that got second. That’s a pretty good effort.”

It was also Kayse who spoiled things for Philip Etzel. The Lex ninth-grader was one win from state before he lost in the quarters to Kayse 6-1, 6-3. Etzel opened the tourney with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Elida’s Eben Jackson.

Ontario’s Alex Ellis and Matt Bayes knew they had a tough draw. They lost 6-2, 7-5 in the opening round to Ottawa Hills’ Savith Vjendra and Chris Thompson, the same duo that beat them a couple of weeks earlier when Ontario fell 3-2 in the district semifinals of the state team tournament.

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Brothers serve up history: Ontario duo joins five state-bound Lex players