Shawnee’s Jake Dietering (right) tries to get the ball away from Elida’s Eben Jackson during Thursday night’s match at Shawnee.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP — For most of Thursday’s Western Buckeye League opener in boys’ soccer at Shawnee, Elida’s defense bent a little, but it did not break.
Shawnee had put up nine clean shots on goal but were turned away each time.
Then it happened.
With 2 minutes, 2 seconds left to play in the contest, Shawnee’s Hunter Drury received a nice feed from teammate Noah Scheid; and from close range, Drury kicked the ball to the back of the net to give Shawnee the 1-0 lead.
That was all the Indians needed as they came away with the hard-fought one-point victory over visiting Elida.
With the win, Shawnee improves to 1-0-1 overall and 1-0 in the WBL. Elida falls to 0-2-0, 0-1 in league play.
Drury credited his teammates for setting him up for the game-winning shot.
“I don’t put that goal 100 percent on me. I have an amazing backline,” Drury said. “I want to give credit to the right wing, Noah Scheid, who put a beautiful ball in. It was just a matter of time. I had a lot of unsuccessful attempts, but I finally got one in.”
For the game, Shawnee put up 10 clean shots on goal, along with several other shots that were just a little outside the frame of the goal. Elida took three shots on goal, all in the second half.
Shawnee, which won the Division II state championship last season, is under the guidance of first-year head coach Jason Hoehn. Ryan Quatman, who guided the Indians to the state title, retired after last season.
Hoehn felt like his team’s luck was eventually going to change Thursday night.
“We kept telling the guys, ‘Shooters shoot. … You can’t score unless you shoot’,” Hoehn said. “So, we knew, eventually, it was going to go in. You aren’t always going to hit it at the goalie. But overall, we’re pleased. We didn’t give up. We kept fighting. In the end, we got the point that we needed.”
After Shawnee recorded three shots on goal in the first half, the Indians came out the final 40 minutes of action, possessed the ball and reeled off seven shots.
Elida goalkeeper Isaac Jones was busy, as he turned away nine shots on the night, six of those coming in the second half.
Coda Miller led Shawnee with four shots on goal – two in each half.
Elida ended the night with three shots on goal. Gabe Adcock recorded all three of those shots for the Bulldogs.
Hoehn felt like his team lacked patience Thursday night.
“The biggest thing was, (we needed) to relax. We were trying to rush it too much. I think we were just rushing, and it got us out of our game,” Hoehn said.
Hoehn said that he had a pretty good idea of what Elida was going to do Thursday night.
“We did not see any tape on them, but we knew from the past that they had a similar style to what we’re used to. … Nothing really confused us. It was more about us not getting our chances finished,” Hoehn said.
Even though this is Hoehn’s first year as the head coach at Shawnee, he isn’t new to the program.
“This is my eighth year (on the Shawnee staff),” Hoehn said. “I was an assistant coach when I came in. … I worked a lot with the JV (junior varsity) boys when I came in. Then, I progressed the last four years, working more with the varsity. … We’re all familiar with each other.”
