Lima Senior’s Bryan Booher (left) and Wapakoneta’s Nathaniel Garber compete for the ball during Tuesday night’s match at Wapakoneta.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
WAPAKONETA — Kyle Beach and Austin Bump dominated Tuesday night at Ryan Field, pushing Wapakoneta to an 8-1 boys soccer victory against Lima Senior as the regular season winds down.
“You never know what you are going to get with Lima Senior because they have a lot of athletes.” Wapakoneta head coach Scott Brinkman said. “You must come out and understand that they can do a lot of things, but we were able to move the ball on them and dictate the pace. I was thrilled that we could get all our players into the lineup tonight because we are going to need depth in the postseason.”
Beach wasted no time skipping the ball past Lima Senior goalkeeper Yahir Brito-Diaz, less than three minutes into the contest Beach had Wapakoneta on the scoreboard. Two minutes later it was Austin Bumps’ turn.
With 35:05 and 34:31 remaining in the first half Bump beat Brito-Diaz for a pair of quick goals to extend the Redskin advantage to 3-0.
Brinkman added. “We did some things tonight to get Austin (Bump) a little more space and that makes him more dangerous. He can go left foot, right foot and has great vision but getting him out in space really made a difference for us.”
Lima Senior’s defense weathered the storm for 26 minutes before the Redskin duo completed their first half hat trick.
Wapakoneta scored three times in two minutes. Kyle Beach played Bumps’ assist into the back of the net with 8:21 ticking away. Fifty seconds later Bump returned the favor to Beach to complete Beach’s hat trick.
“Kyle Beach is a wonderful soccer player. He can see the little things in the game and find runners when they are running, and he just has a tremendous hunger for scoring goals.” Brinkman said.
The second half provided less scoring but similar pressure by the Redskin defense. Wapakoneta goalkeeper Ian Tester did not face a shot until eight minutes remained in the game as the Spartans struggled to build an attack on offense.
“We really stressed our outside backs this week at practice because I thought that our outside backs have to be apart of our offense and be more involved. Our two middle guys Ethan Eisert and Ross Honingford do a tremendous job communicating to everyone what needs to be done.” Brinkman said. “With Ian (Tester) in goal as just a sophomore he has come such a long way, and he is able to manage a game. He puts people in position where he won’t face a lot of shots because of his communication.”
A ball deflected off Spartan keeper Brito-Diaz resulted in an own goal for Wapakoneta, Ethan Eisert joined the scoring fray just above the midway point of the running clock second half.
“Ethan (Eisert) plays center back and when he sees an opportunity to go forward, he attacks, and he has the confidence in his teammates that they will back him up and cover his position,” Brinkman said.
The Spartans were able to avoid the shutout with under two minutes remaining, Andrew Bowsher beat Reiley Sevillano in the right corner of the net for the lone Lima Senior goal.
Each team will conclude its regular season Thursday evening before beginning sectional tournament play next week. Lima Senior (6-5-2) travels to Sidney. Wapakoneta (9-6-1) welcomes Celina.
Scoring:
(W) – Kyle Beach
(W) – Austin Bump
(W) – Austin Bump
(W) – Kyle Beach (Bump asst)
(W) – Austin Bump (Beach asst)
(W) – Kyle Beach
(W) – Own goal
(W) – Ethan Eisert
(L) – Andrew Bowsher
Nate Stidham wrote this story for LimaScores.com. Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
