By Gary R. Rasberry
grasberry@dailystandard.com Among the goals the Celina girls soccer team had going into this season was not dropping a match on the home pitch of the Soccer Stadium.
Their mantra to that effect was "Not in Our Yard."
Going into the final home match of the season on Tuesday against Wapakoneta, the team strived to live up to that challenge.
In a short period of time, the Bulldogs made sure the streak would be intact.
Celina had four players score goals -- three of them seniors playing their final home match -- as the Bulldogs won 5-0 over the Redskins in Western Buckeye League action. The Bulldogs improve to 12-2-1 on the season and 6-2 in the WBL. Wapak falls to 3-12-1 and ends the league season at 2-7.
"One of the goals we had at the beginning of the year, which I am proud of, is we weren't going to lose at home," said Celina coach Cal Freeman. "That's where we came up with the saying. Tonight we accomplished that. The girls are really excited about it.
"Tonight was obviously their night (the seniors). We kind of dedicated the game to them tonight. The girls came out and started right out."
A number of the goals looked more like end results of football field goals rather than soccer goals. Heidi Schollmeier was well outside the penalty box when she lofted a shot that went over the head of Redskin keeper Becca Borges with almost eight minutes gone in the match to give Celina the lead for good.
Fifteen minutes later, Robin Snyder was looking to pass from about 50 yards out. Borges misplayed the hop and the ball got past and went into the goal to make it 2-0.
Twelve minutes later, Celina was in the box on the attack. Meg Smalley took a rebound shot and put it in to make it 3-0.
But the scoring in the first half continued as Schollmeier got her second goal of the night on another long shot to make the score 4-0 with just 44 seconds left.
After the scoring in the first half, there was just one goal in the second. Amy Niekamp, playing out of a defensive position, booted one in from over 25 yards out with 30 minutes left in the match. Celina continued to take shots on the goal after the score, but was unable to get a sixth score.
"We had four different people score. Three of our seniors scored -- Heidi, Meg and Robin," said Freeman. "Amy had a nice one off the top of the net. That was one of those shots of a lifetime. Being on defense all year and scoring from a defensive position, she was really excited about that."
Celina won the battle of shots, outshooting the Redskins 19-2 on the night. Allison Braun, in relief of Laura Kuhn, made the only save of the night for Celina.
"We moved the ball well," said Freeman. "We continue to move the ball well. We created opportunities for the offense to take shots. We had some decent shots."
Celina's junior varsity wrapped up their season with a 9-0 win, finishing the season at 13-1.
The varsity Bulldogs play again today in a makeup match at St. Marys. The match will start at 4 p.m.
SECTIONAL NEWS -- Both the boys and girls soccer teams will travel up to Graham Soccer Stadium in Findlay for the Division I soccer sectional next week.
The boys will play Bowling Green on Monday at 5 p.m. with the winner of that match returning Thursday at 5 p.m. to play second-seeded Findlay.
The girls earned the second seed at the sectional and play today at 5 p.m. against Findlay, which Celina beat 1-0 early in the season. The winner of that match plays Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. against the winner of the Shawnee-Wapakoneta match. |
