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Celina's Ellie Hitchcock heads the ball during Tuesday's sectional final match with Defiance.
CELINA - After taking a tough 1-0 loss to Wapakoneta to end the regular season, Celina got the postseason started properly as Defiance came to town for a Division II girls soccer sectional final matchup.
Celina got the goal that mattered just over six minutes into the contest and used solid defense to post the 3-0 victory at the soccer stadium on Tuesday night.
Celina (11-6-1) heads to Elida next Wednesday for a 5 p.m. district semifinal against the winner of Saturday's sectional final between Liberty-Benton and Bath, which defeated Van Wert 8-0. Defiance ends its season at 3-13-2.
A point of emphasis for Celina the last half of the regular season has been defense. That rang true on Tuesday, as Celina, which defeated Defiance 2-0 in the regular season matchup, held Defiance to just five shots on goal. Keeper Isabelle Maxwell made one save to earn her fourth shutout in the last five games and her seventh clean sheet of the season.
"We were missing Alex (Kimmel, due to injury) tonight, so Natalie Zizelman went back tonight to play the sweeper tonight and played a great match," said Celina coach Eric Gerker. "There were times I thought we played a little timid, but for the most part we wanted to attack from the defensive side, win every ball and be aggressive. We did a pretty good job of that."
Celina's Paiton Rhodes (14) fires a shot toward the Defiance net during Tuesday's Division II sectional girls soccer match at the soccer stadium. Rhodes scored Celina's first goal en route to a 3-0 win to advance to the district semifinals.
Celina picked up its first goal of the night just past the 34:00 mark of the first half when Allana Carroll found Paiton Rhodes inside, and Rhodes knocked the ball past Eliza Ramirez for the match-winner.
Fifteen minutes passed before Celina collected an insurance goal. This time it was Jada Highley finding Bria Pearson at the 18:48 mark to make it 2-0, which held up to the halftime break.
The final goal came just over six minutes into the second half with Ellie Hitchcock passing inside to Savannah, who put the ball past Ramirez.
Celina's Jada Highley brings the ball downfield against Defiance on Tuesday.
Celina had 13 shots on goal with Ramirez recording eight saves. Celina also had a chance in the first half to score a third goal, but it was waved off on an offsides call.
"We were really knocking the ball around well a few times," said Gerker of the offense. "After watching the film, we knew we could get some things through their back line. Making a good entry pass to the girl making the cut was huge for us on offense tonight."
