Rockets dominate Bulldogs in semis

LEXINGTON - After two overtime victories in the district allowed them to reach the Division II girls soccer regional semifinals for the third time in four years, Celina looked for some sort of magic to keep the season going against Bay Village on Tuesday night.

Unfortunately, the Rockets had just too much fire power for the Bulldogs to overcome in a 7-0 Bay Village victory at Lexington High School.

The Rockets (14-5-1) face Ontario on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Brunswick High School. The Warriors defeated Lake 5-0 at Findlay's Graham Stadium in the other regional semifinal.

"What a team," Celina coach Cal Freeman said of the Rockets after the match. "They beat us in every aspect of the game. They're a quality team. They're going to go a long way in the tournament."

Celina ends its season at 10-6-4, overcoming a youthful roster and several key injuries to make the Sweet 16.

"I'm very proud of this team and how far we went," Freeman said. "It's just that we ran into a team that played very well."

The Rockets put pressure on Celina from the start. Maddie Ault scored the first of her two first-half goals at the 34:49 mark of the half with a rebound in the box. Nearly 10 minutes later, Ault added her second goal with a wide-open shot from 25 yards out that got past Celina keeper Chloe Russell to make it 2-0.

"The sad part, we deflected the (first) one that went in. An own goal to start it off. That was a bad omen," Freeman said. "It kind of went south from there."

Two and a half minutes later, the Rockets scored again as Kelly Lenarth knocked in a header off a rebound with 22:37 left in the half to make it 3-0. Maddie Holmes rounded out the Bay Village scoring in the first half with a goal with 13 1/2 minutes remaining.

Because the Rockets kept the ball on the attack side of the field in the first half, the Bulldogs were unable to get any shots on goal.

Bay Village continued its run in the second half. Megan Garrity scored with 30:17 left to play on a 20-yard free kick. Avery Alexy's goal made 6-0 to trigger a running clock with 24:44 to go and Hanna Schilling closed out the night with a goal to send the Rocket fans home happy with 2:14 left to play.

The statistics were overwhelmingly in favor of Bay Village. The Rockets outshot Celina 18-0 and had a 12-0 advantage in corner kicks. Celina keeper Chloe Russell had six saves on the night.

"Definitely a tough loss, but we got beat by a quality team," Freeman said. "It's not like the team didn't deserve to win. They played well and I give a lot of credit to them."