Columbus Grove’s Lauryn Halker (left) and Ottoville’s Mila Kemper compete for the ball during A Tuesday Division III District Semifinal at Ottoville.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
OTTOVILLE — Lauryn Auchmuty’s hat trick led Columbus Grove past Ottoville 3-0 to punch the Bulldogs ticket to Saturday’s district final.
Auchmuty, a junior, has proved to be the focal point of Columbus Grove’s offensive attack each of the last two seasons. This year has been no different. Auchmuty entered play with 28 goals on the campaign, and 94 in her career as a Bulldog.
“The girls have been playing hard the last two games, credit to Ottoville for playing a tough physical game just as we expected,” Columbus Grove head coach Kyle Verhoff said. “They are always well coached.”
Eight minutes into Tuesday’s district semifinal, the Bulldogs found themselves on top of the scoreboard thanks to Auchmuty. Ottoville keeper, Madison Hoersten stepped out of the net to knock down a Grove shot attempt and Grove fired a pair of quick shots near the unoccupied net.
Gabby Metzger stepped in front of Ella Dotson’s shot to bail out Hoersten before Auchmuty collected the deflection and booted the ball into the net with 31:56 to play in the first half.
“She is closing in on 100 in her career,” Verhoff said. Lauryn (Auchmuty) is just simply on fire right now; she has played awesome.”
The Columbus Grove offense was not the only part of the Bulldogs’ game plan thriving during the match. Defensively the Bulldogs prevented Ottoville from attempting a shot throughout the first 40 minutes. The Big Green mustered three shots in the second half, but sophomore goalkeeper Erianne Heffner knocked down each and pitched the shutout.
“We had a couple of girls out tonight, so we had to make some changes defensively, we had to go to a four-man middle towards the end to try and give us an advantage,” Verhoff said.
Lauryn Auchmuty completed her hat trick with 36:38 to play in the contest and the Bulldogs cruised to a physical victory and into Saturday’s district final match.
“Coming into this game we knew it was going to be tough since we just played them on Saturday. We all wanted to come in stronger and we got the 3-0 win tonight, so we are happy.” Auchmuty said. “It is my goal to get to 100 goals before my senior year and getting three tonight helped. My teammates passed well in the middle and that opened our outside opportunities.”
Columbus Grove improves to 12-6-1 with their victory, Ottoville concludes the season at 8-7-3.
Match summary
Scoring.
C – Lauryn Auchmuty (31:56-1st)
C – Lauryn Auchmuty (15:26 -1st)
C – Lauryn Auchmuty (36:38- 2nd)
Shots on Goal.
Columbus Grove – 7
Ottoville – 3
Saves.
Columbus Grove – Erianne Heffner (3)
Ottoville – Madison Hoersten (5)
Nate Stidham wrote this for LimaScores.com. Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
