Ottoville’s Preston Mansfield tries to get ahead of Defiance’s Alejandro Chagoyan during Friday night’s match at Ottoville.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
OTTOVILLE — Ottoville pounded the Defiance net with shots throughout the first half.
But Defiance goalkeeper Carter Campbell did everything but stand on his head to stop most of the shots.
The Big Green finally broke through and posted a 4-0 boys soccer victory over Defiance in the soccer season opener for both schools Friday night.
“We have the skill and the talent,” Ottoville coach Dustin Markward said. “We need to keep the game simple. If you keep it simple, the game is going to go a lot easier. We have a lot back from last year and that’s going to hopefully lead into a good season this year.”
Quinton Schnipke led the Big Green offense with two goals.
Trey Landwehr and Preston Mansfield both scored one.
Campbell kept his Bulldogs in the game in the first half, making nine saves. And of those nine, four were spectacular saves.
For the match, Campbell made 15 saves, with six of the spectacular variety.
Ottoville goalkeeper Alex Suever made one save for the shutout.
Ottoville led 2-0 at the half.
After pelting Campbell with shots early in the half, the Big Green broke through with 20:12 left in the first half.
Garrett Trentman crossed a pass into the 18-yard box and Landwehr pounded it into the lower-left corner of the net.
That gave the Big Green a 1-0 lead.
The Big Green made it 2-0 off a corner kick by Grant Leis.
Leis took the corner kick from the right corner and Schnipke, sitting on the left side of the 6-yard goal box, used his knee to flip the corner kick into the net.
“Our coach told us it wasn’t happening on the near post and to switch it up and go back post,” Schnipke said. “I did it and we scored. It was a good ball by Grant Leis. I hit it with what worked, the knee.’’
That gave Ottoville a 2-0 lead with 6:05 left in the first half.
“We’ve been working on some of our set pieces like that,” Markward said. “We had to get guys in every direction. Sometimes (on a corner kick), you don’t know where that ball is going to be and he was at the right place at the right time.’’
Ottoville outshot Defiance 15-1 in the first half.
For the match, Ottoville outshot the Bulldogs 25-1.
The Big Green pushed its lead to 3-0 with 12:11 to go.
Kellen Schlagbaum sent a cross into the heart of the box and Schnipke knocked it home to make it 3-0.
Ottoville made it 4-0 with 3:50 left.
Preston Mansfield, who had been stonewalled by Campbell on several occasions, settled a loose ball with his back to the net.
Mansfield then spun around and fired a strike into the net from 14-yards out to make it 4-0.
In the first 14 minutes of the half, Defiance’s Campbell made two punch saves and one diving save.
“I told our coach we were giving their keeper a heck of a highlight reel,” Schnipke said. “It was really frustrating. But it’s early in the season and it’ll come. We just have to keep taking shots and taking opportunities.’’
Added Markward, “It seemed right off the bat we were getting a lot of opportunities and it was one of those things where we couldn’t finish. Our first goal got us going a little bit.
“We had some good shots, but their keeper made some nice saves.’’
Ottoville’s four defenders and four midfielders controlled play and continually made stops and get the offense clicking with short, precise passes.
The Big Green controlled about 90 percent of the overall possessions.
“We’ve always stressed strong midfield play,” Markward said.
Ottoville had nine corner kicks, while Defiance had one.
The Big Green returns eight starters from a team that went to the regional finals last year.
“I think we have the potential to go just as far, if not farther than last year, but we have to keep our focus,” Schnipke said.
