St. Marys offense punishes LCC in blowout victory

LIMA - It didn't take long for St. Marys to determine the outcome of its tournament opener.

The Roughriders took 23 shots in the first half, scoring eight times, en route to a 13-0 rout over Lima Central Catholic at the Division II girl's soccer sectional on Wednesday at Bath High School.

The 16-1 Roughriders advance to play Kenton on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Bath after the Wildcats defeated Ada 4-0 in the first match of the day.

"I don't know what to say," said St. Marys coach Paul Dingledine. "We've been practicing hard so we don't have a letdown. We played them early in the season and it was 7-0. ... We're tournament ready right now."

By the time the first half ended, St. Marys had two players with hat tricks. Sara Wolfe and Lindsay Nelson each had three goals in the first half, with Wolfe adding another in the second half to finish with four. Alyssa Nagel and Natalie Ahlers each added first-half goals as well.

The score could have been in double digits by the time ended in the first half if not for exceptional defense by LCC keeper Julie Baker, who made 13 stops, several requiring some skilled diving, in the first 40 minutes.

"She made some nice saves," said Dingledine of Baker. "Like I said, they have the ability, we were just a better team tonight. We came out and were ready. We controlled the midfield."

St. Marys' defense kept the ball on the LCC side most of the night, with the Thunderbirds not recording a shot on goal.

In the second half, St. Marys took seven shots and scored four times. In addition to Wolfe's fourth score, Sam Davenport scored two goals in a span of 25 seconds and Nagel scored the final goal of the game with two minutes left.

LCC didn't help matters in scoring an own goal in the contest. The closest thing LCC had to a shot came with just over 16 minutes left when a St. Marys foul resulted in an indirect kick, meaning the shot cannot go toward the goal until touched by another player. The LCC shot went right into the goal, leading some LCC fans to think the T-Birds scored. The officials met and ruled that the shot was illegal, meaning no goal and keeping the T-Birds without a shot on goal.

Dingledine replaced starting keeper Macy Ferrall with Chelsea Moore with just under five minutes left in the first half, then allowed one of the regular players to suit up and play in goal for the second half as the Roughriders benched a number of starters in the second half.

"My assistant coach takes care of that part of it" said Dingledine about the defense and assistant coach Scott Weber. "He does a good job of preparing them. That's their goal every night, to be as strong as they can. We've only given up nine goals the whole season. We're pretty proud of that."