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Celina's Bridon Jeffries (7) and New Knoxville's Carson Lammers (9) go up for a header during Thursday's boys soccer match at the soccer stadium in Celina. The Bulldogs picked up a 6-2 win to go to 2-0 on the season.
CELINA - After a fairly even first half of play, Celina took control in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Two goals within a span of five minutes allowed the Bulldogs to pull away and improve to 2-0 in boys soccer action with a 6-2 win over New Knoxville on Thursday at the soccer stadium.
"We really challenged them at halftime to try to come out and get a couple of early goals," said Celina coach Ryan Jenkins. "The first half was just good soccer from both teams and it's a really tight match."
The Rangers (0-2) and Bulldogs played back-and-forth soccer for the first quarter of the opening half. The Rangers were able to get a couple corner kick opportunities, but could not convert.
Celina finally broke the scoreless run just over 15 minutes into the half as Bridon Jeffries got a pass, moved inside and got the ball past Connor Hoge at the 24:46 mark to give Celina the lead.
It took nearly 13 minutes for New Knoxville to respond as Ty Schroeder got a pass and was able to put it past Braylon Steinbrunner with 11:58 remaining in the half to level the match.
Five and a half minutes later, Celina went ahead to stay as Rhett Schleucher was in front of the net and put away a rebound to make it 2-1 with 6:19 to play in the opening half. Neither team could add a goal before the halftime whistle.
"New Knoxville had a little bit more possession (of the ball) than what we would have liked in that first half," said Jenkins. "I thought second half we did better with that."
Celina's Zaden Rolfes (13) is defended by New Knoxville's Carson Lammers.
Celina wasted little time building up the lead as Zaden Rolfes took a shot off the corner kick and scored with 36:40 remaining in the match. Just over five minutes later, Rolfes earned his brace (two goals) with another solid shot to make it 4-1.
The next goal came with just over 13 minutes remaining when Bostyn Irmscher was brought down in the box. The officials called for the penalty kick, and Irmscher put the ball past Hoge with 13:18 remaining to make it 5-1. The Bulldogs got a five-goal lead with 7:56 remaining on Kamdyn Fischer's goal to make it 6-1.
New Knoxville wrapped up the scoring with just under five minutes to play on a Cooper Jones score.
"Conditions were still a little rough with our field for both teams," said Jenkins, a nod to having several matches postponed due to excessive water on the field. "But it was nice to get the game in and it was a good non-league match."
Hoge finished with six saves for New Knoxville. Steinbrunner needed just one save. Celina finished with an 8-2 advantage on corner kicks.
Celina returns to action on Saturday, hosting Bryan at the soccer stadium. New Knoxville plays again Tuesday when the Rangers host Lincolnview.
Celina's Hudson Grieshop (26) and New Knoxville's Ty Koenig (5) track down the ball.
