Friday, September 19th, 2014
'Dogs, 'Riders tie again
By Gary R. Rasberry
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Celina's Luke Hone and St. Marys' Nathan Wilker battle for the ball.
ST. MARYS - After playing to scoreless draws the previous two regular season meetings, Celina and St. Marys met in a key Western Buckeye League boys soccer match at Roughrider Field Thursday night.
For the first 71 1/2 minutes of the game, the teams looked ready to play a third straight scoreless tie in the Grand Lake rivalry, only to have St. Marys' Zac Nelson score with 8:10 left to play.
Celina, however, did not quit, as Eddie Eichler scored with eight seconds left in the match to ensure a 1-1 tie.
Defense ruled the majority of the match as neither team could garner any advantages that led to a goal. Roughrider keeper Kaleb Fenwick-Miller made four saves in the first half while his counterpart Braden Conn did not get challenged as Celina's defense kept the Roughriders out of threatening positions.
"Anytime we play St. Marys, it's always a tight game. Both teams played well," Celina coach Ryan Jenkins said. "Defensively, both teams played well defensively."
"We did a terrible job. Our passing in the first half. It was just horrendous," St. Marys coach Dave Ring said. "We made adjustments at halftime and re-settled the nerves."
St. Marys was more aggressive on the attack in the second half. Nelson had several good looks at goal that either went wide or were saved by Conn. Ryan Hoyng also had a couple of chances to put Celina in front, but he could not come up with the goal.
With the clock winding down to the eight minute mark, St. Marys caught a break when Celina was called for a foul just outside the penalty box. Nelson set up the direct kick at the top of the box and put it past Conn to give the Roughriders the lead.
"We scored our goal and did the things we were supposed to do," Ring said.
Celina tried hard to get the equalizer, but St. Marys turned up the defense.
Finally, with the clock under 30 seconds, the Bulldogs got their shot. As the St. Marys student section counted down, Eichler dashed towards the Roughrider goal, got a shot off and then put away his own rebound past Fenwick-Miller with eight seconds left to even the match.
"Coach Leugers (assistant Matt Leugers) suggested Eddie (on the play)," Jenkins said. "(Eichler) was kind of chomping at the bit on the sidelines. He usually doesn't play at the top. The ball came to his foot and he finished."
"Our inexperience on defense comes back to haunt us, like it has all season," Ring said. "Eight seconds!"
All St. Marys could do on the ensuing restart was try the soccer version of the Hail Mary with a long kick that came nowhere close to being a threat.
"We didn't play our best tonight, but as I told the guys, we're going to build on those last five minutes," Jenkins said. "(If) we can play like that with that intensity the whole game, good things will happen."
"Hats off to coach Jenkins," Ring said. "We did everything I wanted to do. Disappointed with the results? Absolutely, because anyone that watched the game knows we should have won."
St. Marys won the junior varsity contest 1-0.
Both teams are back in league play Tuesday. Celina hosts Van Wert and St. Marys travels to Defiance.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
St. Marys' Joe Poeppelman, 18, keeps the ball away from Celina's Nick Marks during Thursday's WBL match. Celina scored with eight seconds left to secure a 1-1 tie against the Roughriders.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
St. Marys' Zac Nelson tries to get past Celina's Hank Thobe. Nelson scored the Roughriders' lone goal of the match with just over eight minutes remaining.
