Riders stay perfect with win over Kenton

ST. MARYS - "Just get Ws. That's all that matters."

Those were the words of St. Marys boys soccer coach Dave Ring as he walked off the field into a sea of Roughrider faithful following a 4-3 victory over Kenton Tuesday night.

Through seven games, the only result Ring's team has gotten are Ws.

The Roughriders were a man down for the final 29 minutes after Zach Lemmerman picked up a red card. With 22:45 to play, St. Marys lost its starting goalie, Keegan Liette, following a collision with Kenton's Hayden Hicks on a breakaway. Liette made a spectacular save on the play to keep the score tied.

And St. Marys found a way.

Caleb James scored his second goal of the night off Austin Wilker's free-kick delivery with 21:42 left to break a 3-3 tie, and the Roughriders held off a scrappy Wildcat team down the stretch to improve to 7-0-0 and 3-0-0 in WBL play.

"We have such depth, and I've talked about it all season," Ring said. "It's next man up. We know what we need to do. Last season was a great learning experience with all the injuries we went through. This team can handle that."

Lemmerman assisted Dylan Engel on two goals, the first of which came with 33:15 left in the first half. James gave St. Marys a 2-0 lead with a penalty kick goal eight minutes later.

But Luke Woodruff halved the deficit with 14:31 to play in the opening half, making some fancy moves in the goal box to get a clean look at the net. Shaun Hurt tied the game at 2-apiece with a goal just before intermission.

The Engel-Lemmerman duo struck again less than three minutes into the second half to give St. Marys back the lead. Kenton's Drew Hoppe found the net to tie the score again with 31:32 to play.   Lemmerman was sent off the field moments later. Liette's injury occurred less than seven minutes later and he was replaced by sophomore Luke Vondrell.

No worries, though.

James came through with goal No. 2 and the St. Marys defense prevented any quality looks over the final 20 minutes. Vondrell made a routine save right after entering and charged out to catch a corner kick on the fly with 5:20 left.

"Our biggest problem was we ran out to a nice lead, and then we didn't finish our opportunities to put them away," Ring said. "They got a couple gifts from our mistakes. We've got to do a better job and clean that stuff up. We just battled back. I told them when our keeper got hurt, 'We got this. We can take it. We're going to score.' And we did. They did a great job. The leadership on the field was fantastic."

St. Marys improved to 7-0-0 and 3-0-0 in WBL play with the win. Kenton dropped to 3-3-1 and 0-2 in league play. The Wildcats did, however, edge the Roughriders in penalty cards, 3-2.

The Blue and Gold return to WBL play on Thursday, traveling to meet Defiance.