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Celina's Nelson Chapman (14) battles with St. Marys' Cohen Craft for possession of the ball.
TIFFIN - After playing 80 minutes to a draw in the regular season meeting, the rematch between Celina and St. Marys in boys soccer was primed to be a dandy.
Turned out, the Roughriders were not in the mood to work overtime, or wrap up the season.
After Celina scored in the first half, the Roughriders scored two goals the final 7 1/2 minutes of regulation, rallying for a 2-1 victory in the Division III district semifinals on Monday at Frost-Kalnow Stadium in Tiffin.
"It was exactly what we expected," said St. Marys coach James Holtzapple of the match. "We knew it was going to be a battle for 80 minutes."
St. Marys (15-2-3) returns to Tiffin on Thursday to play Holland Springfield (16-1-1) in the district final. The Blue Devils defeated Maumee 6-2 at Lake High School in the other semifinal.
"Two good teams playing," said Celina coach Ryan Jenkins, whose squad ends the season at 12-4-3 and a Western Buckeye League title. "We had some chances. They were able to get a couple corners at the end."
Celina's Noah Russell (22) collides with St. Marys' Rowan Verbryke.
After playing to a 1-1 tie on Sept. 24 in Celina, both teams were primed to keep the other from scoring. Good scoring chances were few and far between throughout the match, with a key point was to limit corner kicks.
Celina finally broke open the scoring with just 11 minutes remaining in the first half. Kamdyn Fischer moved the ball inside to the left of the goal, then passed inside to Austin Siefring, who put the ball past Landon Klaus with 10:45 remaining in the half to put Celina on top 1-0.
Unable to equalize before the half, St. Marys doubled its defensive focus to keep from getting down 2-0. The Bulldogs had just one good shot at a second goal in the second half, but Klaus easily made the save.
"Our entire group is very tenacious," said Holtzapple. "Even at halftime, we talked at halftime about playing the first half with low energy, not (having) good touches or connections, and we were down by one. Meant we were completely in the game. We still played that way a little in the second half."
Celina was also sharp on defense, keeping St. Marys from getting any looks at the goal and kicking deep shots back to the other side of the pitch.
St. Marys' Brady Triplett (16) tries to avoid the tackle by Celina's Zaden Rolfes during Monday's Division III boys soccer district semifinal at Tiffin Columbian High School.
With the clock winding under 7:30 to play, the Roughriders got a corner kick opportunity. Reid Kantner set up and kicked the ball inside the goal box. Bradey Triplett was able to get free enough for a header into the back of the goal to tie the match with 7:22 to play in regulation.
"It took us 72 minutes to find the energy to step it in," said Holtzapple. "We did a great job staying close and staying in (the match). I couldn't be more proud of our boys."
As the clock wound down and thoughts of overtime began to take hold, St. Marys received another corner kick. Again, Kantner did the honors and put the ball into the middle of the scrum. The ball hit Hudson Hertenstein in the back. Celina keeper Braylon Steinbrunner made the deflection, but Hertenstein turned around and kicked into the back of the net with 3:30 to play to put St. Marys in front.
"It was enormous," said Holtzapple. "We just played one of the best teams in the area. I couldn't be happier."
"We talked at halftime about limiting the corners," said Jenkins. "And they got two goals off corners."
Celina to attack the St. Marys goal, but the Roughrider defense held tough to wrap up the win.
"It stinks to have that conversion (after the season ends) with five seniors (Siefring, Logan Sapp, Kayden Aller, Nelson Chapman and Luke Maxwell). That's the hardest part of the job, talking to them after the final game," said Jenkins. "There's very few teams that don't have that talk. It was a good game. Proud of how hard they played. Obviously, I would have liked the other result, but hat's off to St. Marys."
