Bulldogs get past Riders

ELIDA - In the first 40 minutes, St. Marys took 10 shots on goal and Celina took two.

But it was Celina holding a 2-0 lead at the half, and that margin held as the Bulldogs went on to a 3-1 win over the Roughriders in the Division II Northwest District I semifinals at Elida Middle School on Monday night.

"It was just a great high school soccer game," Celina coach Ryan Jenkins said. "Both teams had opportunities to score. Fortunately, in the first half, St. Marys had a bunch of opportunities and we were able to keep them shut out."

With the win, Celina (12-3-2) moves on to face Shawnee in the district finals on Thursday at 6 p.m. The top-seeded Indians won 6-0 over the Bulldogs back on Sept. 3.

After an aggressive start by Celina that failed to produce any scoring opportunities, the Roughriders (11-7-1) responded with a solid 10 minutes of constant possession and an onslaught of shots. St. Marys earned five corners and seven shots on goal in that stretch alone.

Keeper Logan Smith held the Roughriders at bay, and while St. Marys continued to dominate most of the first half, the Bulldogs defense continued to hold up.

Smith finished with 10 saves in the win.

"(Smith) stepped up, made some great saves," Jenkins said. "And St. Marys has a good offense, so to hold them to one goal is a good game."

"We kept hitting him with the ball," St. Marys coach Josh Hertenstein said. "He had a solid game, but I think we made him look a little bit better than he was. But he's a good keeper."

Finally the game shifted in Celina's favor with just under nine minutes to go before halftime. After rebounding off a St. Marys defender, the ball found its way to Craddock Bridge, who shot through traffic and tucked it inside the left post for the first goal of the game.

Six minutes later, a shot from Logan Seitz on the left hit off the crossbar and ricocheted into the net over the head of keeper Correy Nelson.

"We really dominated possession, we had 10 shots to their two the first half. Unfortunately their two went in and none of ours went in," Hertenstein said. "We needed a little luck in the first half, but it didn't happen."

St. Marys kept the pressure on in the second half, and Adam Tobin scored his 47th career goal on a breakaway with 31:52 left to halve the deficit. But two more breakaways in the next two minutes were whistled dead on offsides calls, and the Bulldogs made scoring opportunities much harder to come by in the final minutes.

Celina added an insurance goal with 9:47 left, after a tripping call on the Roughriders in front of the goal gave the Bulldogs a penalty kick. Nelson saved the penalty kick, but couldn't get back to save a shot off the rebound.

The two teams faced off 18 days earlier, when Celina won handily in a 5-1 rout.

"That wasn't us," Hertenstein said. "We just came out flat, the guys never got into it. I don't know how you don't get up for a rivalry game. But we were up for this. This was more the team."