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Celina's Gavin Pearson and New Knoxville's Andrew Leffel vie for the ball at New Knoxville Community Park on Saturday.
NEW KNOXVILLE - New Knoxville packed the defensive third Saturday, and for 29 1/2 minutes, it kept Celina off the board.
But the Bulldogs got a late flurry before halftime and the Rangers couldn't muster any offense as Celina won 4-0 in a boys soccer match at New Knoxville Community Park on Saturday.
"We were settling for the deep shot early," Celina coach Ryan Jenkins said. "They had a lot of defenders behind the ball, so that's what they were wanting us to do. Going into the second half we played better, able to get a few goals, got it to 3-0. Second half we obviously liked to have a few more goals. We had plenty of chances, just didn't finish."
Celina (2-0) had plenty of chances, but the Rangers defense and keeper Preston Rutschilling stymied the Bulldogs early on. Rutschilling came out of net aggressively, leaping to grab a pair of corners and a throw-in in the first five minutes, and saved 10 shots in the first 29 minutes to keep the game tied.
New Knoxville goalkeeper Preston Rutschilling leaps to grab a corner kick in the second half against Celina.
With 32 minutes remaining in the half, he went back against his momentum and batted down a hard shot by Jake Knapke, then grabbed the rebound before any of the Bulldogs could get to it. With 24:28 left, he dove to knock a shot away to the right, then was up to grab a shot at the left post 18 seconds later.
"He's very, very talented, and he's such a leader when he's back there," New Knoxville coach Kaili Patterson said. "We're working on him communicating a little more, calling for a drop ball every once in a while so he can play it back up and things like that. But corner kicks, he reads the ball really well, can usually find it in the air. Those side-to-side balls, he's not afraid to dive. It's sometimes hard to find a keeper that is comfortable with falling, and he does really well with it."
Sophomore Parker Jones headed a shot out with 11:14 to go in the half, and Max Baumstark's shot went straight to Rutschilling with 10:52 remaining. But 30 seconds later, Baumstark fired a shot inside the left post and Rutschilling, screened, barely moved before it was in the back of the net.
Two minutes later, Baumstark got a free kick just outside the box and put it in the right side to make it 2-0.
"He's able to get those two goals in the first half that kind of sparked us, got us going," Jenkins said. "It was just, we left a lot of goals out there today. We'll keep working at it, and it's nice to get a win, but we've definitely got to play better."
Wyatt Chapman added a goal in the left side with 5:44 left in the half and Celina went into the break up 3-0.
New Knoxville (0-1-1) got two shots on goal, one on a goal kick and a long run by Jay Waterman and another on a long shot by Jay Schroeder, but couldn't sustain an attack.
"We definitely came out fighting. Unfortunately, we don't control the field as well as Celina does," Patterson said. "We definitely played a very defensive game, didn't have a lot of offensive movement. Hard to score a lot of goals if you're not an offensive team."
Patterson switched at halftime from a 5-3-2 to a 4-4-2 to add a player in the midfield and try to bring more physicality, and while Celina got nine shots on goal in the second half, it couldn't put in another goal until the very end. Rutschilling blocked the Bulldogs' best chance, a point-blank shot by Knapke after a takeaway in the backfield by Chapman, and freshman Kaden Weitz knocked away a shot off the rebound at the left post with 23:10 to play.
New Knoxville's Noah Holland beats Celina's Jake Knapke to a header at New Knoxville Community Park on Saturday.
But New Knoxville got just one shot on goal after halftime, a long shot right to keeper Brady Steinbrunner, and Chapman finally made it 4-0 with a shot inside the right post with 47.4 seconds remaining.
"We had some good runs, we just didn't connect the passes," Jenkins said. "We had some balls through where we couldn't quite get to it for that final shot. All things we can work on, and just work on team chemistry, keep working in practice."
Rutschilling finished with 24 saves.
With the heat and humidity, play was stopped with 20 minutes left in each half for a two-minute water break for the players.
Celina takes on St. Marys in its home opener Thursday, while New Knoxville travels to Botkins for a Western Ohio Soccer League game.
