Brick wall

ELIDA - St. Marys only got three shots on goal on Wednesday, but that turned out to be two more than it needed.

Morgan Hesse hit the game-winner right after halftime and Ella Jacobs shut down Celina, making two saves in a frantic final minute to secure a 1-0 win in the Division II girls soccer district semifinals at the Elida Middle School Soccer Complex.

"We knew that we were in for a dogfight," St. Marys coach Nick Wilson said. "Sometimes you get one opportunity and you've got to take it when you get the chance."

St. Marys (12-7) moves on to the district final on Saturday, where it will take on Shawnee after the Indians beat Bath 2-1 in the nightcap. Celina finishes its season at 10-7-1.

Less than four minutes into the second half, the Roughriders' Aerial Fast, Kendall Dieringer, and Morgan Hesse started pushing the ball down the left side. Fast passed to Dieringer down the sideline, Dieringer pushed it back to Hesse, and with a gap in the defense, Hesse let fly from well behind the box. The shot sailed over Celina keeper Riley Seitz's hand to put St. Marys on the board.

"That was a great shot, 30 or 35 yards out, top of the crossbar," Celina coach Eric Gerker said. "Nothing Riley could do. She played it well, it just got between her hand and the crossbar. Can't fault her on that."

The Bulldogs got a pair of corner kicks three minutes later that came to nothing, then went quiet for much of the second half before finding another gear. With 11 minutes left, Taylor Klingshirn cut through the defense on the left side for a close-range shot on Jacobs, who batted it down, and when Jena Wilson went to knock in the rebound from the right side, Jacobs pushed the shot wide right, giving the Bulldogs a corner but keeping them off the board.

On the corner, Jacobs snagged a header by Mia Rolfes near the left post to extinguish the threat.

"We got some one-on-one opportunities, we were breaking their defense down, we doubled their shots," Gerker said. "So, we created opportunities. Jacobs had a miraculous game in the box."

With time winding down, the Celina offense stepped up the pressure. Zoey Burns took a long shot that trailed right, and shortly thereafter Klingshirn got the ball inside the box with just under two minutes to play. St. Marys' Gabby Keller fell down defending her and tangled up Klingshirn's feet, and the refs gave the ball to the Roughriders rather than awarding the Bulldogs a penalty kick.

But with 55 seconds left, a handball gave Celina back the ball, and 20 seconds later the Bulldogs lined up for another corner. Klingshirn headed the ball straight up and Rolfes took a shot from outside the scrum that was pushed out of bounds.

The ensuing corner came to nothing as St. Marys cleared the ball with 10 seconds left and Celina ran out of time.

"We left a lot of scoring chances begging," Gerker said. "Some of those chances we had, we've got to put them in the back of the net. The scrums in front of the net, you've got to clean those up."

The Bulldogs came closest to taking the lead on a pair of breakaways in the final two minutes of the first half. With 1:40 remaining, Kira Dirksen got behind the defense and took a hard shot right into Jacobs, and with 10 seconds remaining, she got another chance, almost identical to the first.

Once again, Jacobs was on the spot, and she corralled the rebound before the other Bulldogs reached the net.

"It was such a toss-up last year to take her out of goal and put her in the field as a defender," Wilson said. "She played tremendously, and in the process, Kiley Tennant stepped up last year and did great things, especially on this field. Now to have (Jacobs) back and getting reps on a more routine basis, she sees the field incredibly well, she makes the right read 98 percent of the time and keeps us in games."

Jacobs finished with six saves for the Roughriders. Seitz saved two shots.

The loss marks the second straight year that Celina has been clipped by St. Marys in the district semifinal. The Roughriders won 2-1 last year and prevailed 3-1 two weeks ago in the regular season matchup.