The image of Hilary Ells scoring the final goal in the Capital University women’s soccer team’s 4-2 victory over John Carroll University in the 2011 Ohio Athletic Conference championship is forever etched in the mind of Crusaders coach Chris Kouns. “After she scored, she raised her index finger in a Joe Namath style. For me, that’s just Ells,” Kouns says. “That’s the type of mentality you have to have: ‘I just did this to you. I put the ball in your net and now you have to watch me walk away.’ “I always joke with her ‘I’m constantly looking to see that kid with the finger up in there again. Where is she?’” After missing last season with a stress fracture in her right hip, Ells has returned with a flourish. The red-shirt senior forward was selected as the OAC Forward of the Year after scoring 14 goals in the regular season. Ells broke out of a four-game scoring slump, fittingly enough, in a 4-0 win over John Carroll in the OAC championship game on Nov. 10. Ells, who hadn’t scored since powering in four goals in a 5-0 win over Marietta on Oct. 22, took a Livvy Hein throw-in and powered a shot past Lobos goalie Haley McDonald four minutes, 21 seconds into the game. “I thought I hadn’t been playing well for a couple of games prior to the championship,” Ells says. “The night before I was thinking about what I need to do. Come game day I was really ready to go. “To be up 1-0 in the first five minutes of the game was really good for our team. It set the tone.” Since being moved up from the center midfielder spot to forward her freshman year of high school, Ells has been the one who usually sets the tone offensively. In her three years at Grandview, Ells scored 55 goals, including 15 her junior season as the Bobcats finished 12-2-3 overall. “I have always been offensive minded and I am pretty fast,” Ells says. “My coach said we are going to put you up top and see what you could do.” Ells seemed to handle the transition to Division III soccer well. She was second on the Crusaders in goals scored (seven) as a freshman and lead the team in goals as a sophomore (10) and this year Ells lead the OAC in goals and points scored (28). Kouns attributes Ells’ success on the field to the amount of work she puts in the offseason. He rarely sees her without a soccer ball. “Hilary is a very dedicated to her craft,” Kouns says. “You’ll always see Hilary with a ball at her feet. In between classes, she’s juggling and striking balls. There’s a direct correlation to her work rate and her dedication to being better.” “It’s like my stress release. I will grab the iPod and do touches on the ball,” Ells says. “People who see me out there go ‘Wow you work so hard.’ But for me it’s not really work. I love the game so much.” Twice the game she loves has been taking away from her. She missed her senior year of high school soccer after having anterior cruciate ligament surgery days before the team’s opener. After coming off the OAC championship and a trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2011, Ells and the Crusaders seemed poised for another big season. Then Capital lost Ells to the hip injury and then lost defender Michelle Geiger to a torn labrum. Ells’ hip injury can be traced back to a stunted growth plate that caused her right leg to be about an inch shorter than her left. The summer after her freshman season at Capital, she began experiencing pain with it but was “good to go” by the start of her sophomore year. Three days into two-a-day practices before her junior season, Ells began to experience a sharp, shooting pain through her hip. “It started hurting a little bit but I thought to myself ‘Oh no, here it comes again,’” she says. “I thought I could fight it off but it got to the point where it hurt when I was just walking around. I couldn’t shake it.” Ells says what hurt the most was watching her team struggle. Capital managed to finish 10-8-2 but after playing JCU to a 1-all tie lost 3-2 in penalty kicks in an OAC quarterfinal. “We didn’t do as well as we thought we would,” she says. “The most frustrating aspect of that was watching my team get frustrated and knowing I couldn’t do anything about it. I really hated to be on the sidelines but it wasn’t an injury I could afford to mess with as far as the long term goes.” Missing the season made Ells more determined for a solid year this year. She scored in her second game back, a 2-all tie with Penn State-Behrend, and notched goals in the next three games including the game winner in a 2-1 double overtime win at Thomas More. Her return to form doesn’t surprise Kouns. “Every time I saw her she was working on touching the ball and getting comfortable with it again,” he says. “The biggest thing she was going to have to overcome was the mental block of ‘I was injured last year. Am I going to be able to get pass it?’” “This season has been great for us,” Ells adds. “We have a really strong class of 11 seniors this year. Most of us have played together for all four years. Everyone plays well together and we did a good job with the underclassmen making sure they felt welcomed on the team. That team chemistry helps us play well.” Ells received a medical redshirt meaning she is able to play next season but she’s undecided on what she will do. Kouns hopes she comes back because her best soccer may still be in front of her. “I don’t think Ells has peaked. She had a great year this year but by no means this is all of what she is capable of,” Kouns says. “In another year she would be capable of doing even more.”