Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

'Riders win WBL, top Kenton in tourney opener

By Colin Foster
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard

St. Marys' Zac Nelson, 16, avoids Kenton's Dustin Shope-Howard to score a goal during Monday's Division II boys soccer tournament match.

ST. MARYS - The phrase "Go, Celina" isn't typically uttered by those in St. Marys.
It was okay to say that if you were a St. Marys soccer fan on Monday night.
Roughly an hour after St. Marys posted a 4-0 win over Kenton to open Division II sectional tournament play, the Roughriders got some help from their neighbors to the west - as Celina's 2-2 draw against Wapakoneta gave St. Marys the outright Western Buckeye League championship for the second consecutive season.
"Back-to-back, it hadn't been done in quite a while on the boys soccer side. Of course, we've never done it, so (winning) is nice," a smiling St. Marys coach Dave Ring said. "(The title) means a lot. It'll mean a lot to these kids, especially after all the injuries and everything we've went through during the season, just to persevere.
"We got ranked. We knocked off ranked teams. We couldn't ask for a better season," he continued. "When we were 1-2-2, people were writing us off, and I'm like, 'Well, give us another week. We're going to be healed.' "
The Roughriders certainly appeared at full strength entering the Kenton game, having outscored teams 10-0 over their last five games. The game against the Wildcats was no different.
Matt Dine put forth a tremendous individual effort to put St. Marys on the scoreboard with 27 minutes left in the opening half, out-hustling a Kenton defender to the ball in the goal box and burning keeper Hunter Phillips for a 1-0 lead. The goal came a minute after Phillips had denied Dine's shot attempt with a tremendous save.
Zac Nelson put the 'Riders up 2-0 with a goal five minutes later. Nelson bent in a corner kick to give his team a 3-0 cushion with 38:49 remaining in the second half. Riley Niekamp added St. Marys' final goal with 11 minutes left in the half.
Nathan Wilker had a team-high two assists, while Nathan Falk and Jared Rose each added one.
"We wanted to work on possession. We knew Kenton was going to have a game plan that was basically going to protect their own end and spread out," Ring said. "If you noticed, Nelson had four guys one him.
"So it was good for us to work on what we needed to do. I thought we did exactly what we needed to in this game."   
The win sets up a matchup with Bryan at home on Thursday. The game is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. but there is a good chance it will be switched to 7 p.m. due to the distance Bryan must travel.
"They're a little bit different than they were last year, but they play the same way," said Ring about Bryan. "Their style is the same. They've had their ups and downs but they're going to be a very good team and it's going to be a team we'll have to possess against."
St. Marys' focus will shift towards Bryan come later today, but Monday night was all about celebrating a feat that everyone on the team worked so hard to make happen.
"Everybody, all 22, has combined to the success," Ring said. "That's the best part. Everybody has combined to the success, because everybody has had to play."
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard

St. Marys' Matt Dine stops the ball during Monday's Division II sectional boys soccer match with Kenton at Roughrider Field.

Additional online stories on this date
Governor calls for limited government
COLDWATER - Gov. John Kasich on Monday afternoon said a limited but caring government can empower all Ohioans by putting more money in their pockets and helping them develop God-given talents through lifelong education. [More]
CELINA - Wapakoneta needed a win on Monday to claim the Western Buckeye League boys soccer title.
Celina was ready to play the role of spoiler. [More]
Subscriber and paid stories on this date
Grossology theme of library program
NEW BREMEN - The thought of bloody blisters, Q-tips dripping with earwax and a bucket of slimy worms lured Ryland Busse to the library Monday night.
CELINA - City council members Monday night unanimously approved a new three-year contract with the city's largest union representing 43 employees of the utility, engineering and public works departments.
ST. MARYS - City council may change the chime schedule for the Memorial Park clock tower after receiving complaints about late-night noise.
Resident Richard Miller told council members Monday night the bells were very distracting and the time on the clocks is wrong.
ST. HENRY - Council members on Monday discussed steps to ensure drones do not become a problem in the village.
St. Henry council president Doug Rin
COLDWATER - Village officials plan to keep a close eye on the budget after getting some bad financial news at Monday's council meeting.
Coldwater c
MARIA STEIN - The most recent five-year forecast at Marion Local Schools shows expenditures exceeding revenues in fiscal year 2017.
Treasurer Heath
NEW BREMEN - Village council members Monday night set a plan in motion to cover the costs of improving Circle Drive.
Officials agreed to apply for a zero-percent interest loan from the Ohio Public Works Commission to pay the $637,000 cost for the project.
CELINA - The Celina girls soccer team started a busy week of action on Monday by beating Elida 4-1 in a rescheduled Western Buckeye League matchup at the soccer stadium.
Computer Points Roundup
With the seventh week of the high school football regular season now in the books, we will use this article to show the effects of last weekend's results and then another article later in the week to project in greater depth what might happen by the end of the season.
Several members of the Coldwater girls soccer team received honors as the Western Ohio Soccer League released its inaugural All-League selections on Monday.