Bulldogs snap losing skid against Roughriders

ST. MARYS - The St. Marys boys soccer team has owned recent meetings in the rivalry with Celina, coming into Thursday's renewal of the Grand Lake Derby with a three-game winning streak and a 4-3-3 record over the last 10 matches with the Bulldogs.

By the time the match ended, Celina showed they were ready to regain control of the matchup.

Jack Duncan and Nathan Wilson scored two goals each, and the Bulldogs ended their losing streak in the series with a 5-1 win on Thursday night.

At the end of the night, St. Marys' shiny new scoreboard had Celina with 14 shots on goal, three corner kicks and nine saves (eight by keeper Logan Smith). St. Marys generated 10 shots on goal and had nine corner opportunities.

"The last three years, we have been on the losing side," Celina coach Ryan Jenkins said. "Our seniors had a goal to get a win against them. They came out, played well and got the win."

"Now, St. Marys is a great team," Jenkins added. "They will bounce back."

The teams entered the night tied for second in the Western Buckeye League standings. Celina improved to 6-1-1 in league play and 9-2-1 overall. St. Marys fell to 5-3-1 and 8-5-1.

Celina got on the scoreboard with 35:13 remaining in the first half, when Jaden Jones snuck a shot past St. Marys starting keeper Correy Nelson. The goal was set up by a nice feed from Jacob Hathaway.

Nearly 12 minutes later, Duncan gave Celina a 2-0 lead when he placed a diving header just inside the right goal post. Hathaway was credited with another assist on the play.

"Jacob saw him running on the back side, and coach (Kyle) White was yelling he was open from the bench," Jenkins said. "We did not think Jack would get there, but he put it in second gear and put it in the back of the net."

The Roughriders had a couple quality looks denied during that stretch. Joey Vanderhorst saw his on-target, close-range shot kicked out of harms way by a Celina defender. Moments later, Vanderhorst lofted a corner kick in the box to Andrew Ibrahim, whose header was stopped by Smith.

The Bulldogs completed their first half hat trick with 13:57 to play. Duncan got his second goal off a feed by Wilson.

"They just outplayed us," said St. Marys coach Josh Hertenstein. "It was a effort and heart thing for us. We were flat. We dominated the first 10 to 15 minutes. We just could not put shots away, and they got a goal and it started to fall apart for us from there."

Wilson got his goals in the second half - striking first with 22:56 left and then again with 19:22 to play. Craddock Bridge assisted both goals.

St. Marys avoided being shut out with just under a minute to play as A.J. Dieringer connected on a shot off an assist by Ryan Ibrahim.

"We didn't get a bunch of opportunities, but we put them in the back of the net," Jenkins said. "Defensively, we played solid. St. Marys scores a lot of goals. Our defense was trying to keep them outside so they couldn't just run down the middle on us. St. Marys got looks, but we were in the right spots."

Both teams are back in action on Saturday. Celina travels to Lexington and St. Marys hosts Bryan.