Finally on the field

CELINA - The only victor in Celina's first two scheduled boys' soccer matches of the season was Mother Nature, who brought heavy rain, thunder and lightning to force two straight postponements.

The Bulldogs finally got to play for real on Monday night, and their effort was more than enough in a 5-1 win over Miller City at the soccer stadium.

"Starting Aug. 1 with the first practice and not having the first match until Aug. 27 is tough on the guys," Celina coach Ryan Jenkins said. "They were chomping at the bit to get going."

The Bulldogs wasted little time to get the first goal of the season as Josh Kuehne knocked the ball past Wildcat keeper Joseph Deitering just over five minutes into the match to give Celina a 1-0 lead. Celina continued to put pressure on Deitering, who made six saves in the first half and 13 for the match, before getting burnt by Jack Duncan for the second goal with 2:19 left to play in the opening half.

Celina needed just over 15 minutes to add a third goal when Jim Aquino found Logan Seitz, who quickly put the ball into the back of the net at 24:43 to make it 3-0. Precisely 10 minutes later, Craddock Bridge scored to make it 4-0. Aquino scored the final Celina goal just over five minutes later.

"We played good soccer both halves," Jenkins said. "We had five different guys score, which is awesome to get the season going."

Celina's defense was exceptional after the long respite. The defenders limited Miller City (1-3) to just five shots on the night. Andrew Puschel started in goal for Celina in the first half and made saves on both of the Wildcats' shot attempts. Jenkins brought on Dalton Leiss to mind the net in the second half. Leiss had to only make one save. The hope for a shutout was ended with 13:40 left in the match when Austin Wagner was able to put the ball past Leiss.

"Both keepers stepped up and made saves," Jenkins said. "Happy with how both played. It makes it harder to go with just one, so we'll continue to split time between them because they're both working hard and doing great things.

"Defensively we played better. The (last) scrimmage we gave up four goals. It would have been nice to get the zero, but we played well throughout the night."

The Celina junior varsity also won in its opener, posting a 6-1 decision.

Celina now goes into Western Buckeye League play on Thursday at Kenton, which knocked the Bulldogs out of the Division II tournament last season.