Bulldogs beat Roughriders for district crown

ELIDA - Earlier this season, it took the Celina Bulldogs 79 minutes and 52 seconds to strike a goal against the St. Marys Roughriders in their Western Buckeye League meeting that eventually ended in a 1-1 tie.

When the two squads clashed in the Division II boys soccer district championship match Thursday night in Elida, a tie game wasn't an option.

The Bulldogs didn't wait quite as long to find the back of the net this time around. A goal by Cortland Elking less than five minutes into the game was all it took for Ryan Jenkins' club to claim its first district crown in school history with the 1-0 triumph.

With the victory, Celina advances to their first regional tournament at 14-2-3 overall. Awaiting the Bulldogs at Findlay's Graham Memorial Stadium next Wednesday will be the Wildcats of Napoleon, which defeated Bowling Green 3-0 at Toledo Central Catholic on Thursday. St. Marys, the WBL champion, bows out of the postseason at 13-3-4 overall in the 2014 campaign.

"With all of the WBL teams in this district, it is great to make it out and have the opportunity to keep playing," Jenkins said. "There were times this season when we weren't playing our best and we didn't finish where we wanted to in the league, but tonight we did what we needed to against a very good team."

While the Celina offense obviously secured the game-winning goal, it was the Bulldog defense that flourished from beginning to end, as St. Marys took only two shots on goal the entire evening, neither of which were fired in the final 50 minutes of the game.

"Defensively, we played very solid tonight. We wanted to keep them in front of us and try to slow them down," Jenkins said. "Both of our teams are very similar and we know a lot about one another. You can't overthink when preparing for a game like this because then you tend to get out of what you want to accomplish. We needed to know where Zac Nelson was at all times. He is the Player of the Year in the WBL for a reason, so we definitely needed to contain him."

Both coaches expected a low-scoring defensive battle, but neither would have likely predicted that Elking's shot following the assist from sophomore Luke Hone at the 35:44 mark would have been enough for Celina to knock off the WBL champions.

"We talked at halftime that we didn't think one goal was going to be enough," Jenkins said. "St. Marys really threw a lot at us in the second half and their defense really stepped up. We played back on our heels in the second half and their offense really came at us as well so we definitely had to keep battling until the very end."

Although the setback was disappointing for St. Marys veteran head coach Dave Ring, he issued credit where it was due following the trophy presentation.

"It is tough, but Celina definitely played better on defense than we did and we did not possess the ball well at all tonight," Ring said. "We couldn't get in sync and our communication was frustrating all night. Celina had a good game plan coming in and knew exactly what they needed to do. They have done very well the last four weeks and although we didn't come out on top, it was a very good game to play in."