Bath’s Ricky Deppe looks to get past Lima Central Catholic’s Noah Wilson during Thursday night’s match at Bath. See more high school soccer photos at LimaScores.com.
Don Speck | The Lima News
BATH TOWNSHIP — Bath buzzed the Lima Central Catholic net throughout the first half.
But many of the Wildcats’ shots were tipped over the net or simply flew over the crossbar.
Bath adjusted in the second half and the result was a 2-1 Wildcats’ victory over LCC in a boys soccer match Thursday at Bath.
“We told them at halftime, ‘There’s going to be a lot of bodies in the box and you just have to make sure you put a foot on it and get it toward the goal,’ ’’ Bath coach David Briggs said. “We had a lot of shots just going over because they thought we needed to hit it high.
“Once we made that halftime adjustment, we were a lot better with shots on target, which led ultimately to both of those goals.’’
Bath’s Joel Rasor had the game-winning goal with 6:55 to go. He made a sliding shot toward the net and the ball may have ticked off an LCC defender and into the net.
The goal was credited to Rasor.
“One of my guys shot it and I slide tackled the ball in,” Rasor said. … “In the second half we started to shoot the ball lower because their goalie (Oli Bruno) was pretty big and had a lot of range.’’
Added Briggs, “I told them to put the ball in a dangerous area and make the keeper make a decision and it got by him. Joel was on that backside, slid and tapped it in.’’
Bath is 1-1-1. LCC is 1-1.
LCC controlled play most of the match and outshot LCC 20-5.
LCC goalkeeper Oli Bruno made 15 saves.
Bath goalkeeper Landyn Vreeland had three saves.
Bath had the corner-kick advantage, 10-3.
The match was scoreless at the half.
Bath had the first-half shot advantage, 13-3. But many of those shots were rejected over the bar by Bruno.
Bath scored first with 25:50 to go.
The Wildcats’ Brayden Van Horn flicked a loose ball toward the net from 6-yards out and the ball was re-directed off an LCC defender into the net at the goal line for an own goal.
That gave Bath a 1-0 lead.
LCC charged back with an offensive surge and scored with 10:26 to go.
Noah Wilson took a shot from the heart of the 18-yard box and Bath’s Vreeland made the save, but couldn’t corral the ball.
It ended up near the left post and Alex Arellano rammed it home to tie the match at 1.
“We worked the ball wide and got it inside and the keeper had a nice save,” LCC coach Justin Bryan said. “We followed up and crashed the net and good things happened.’’
Overall, LCC had a better second half at both ends.
“We had better intensity (in the second half),” Bryan said. “We didn’t play Thunderbird soccer in the first half, but it didn’t hurt us. It was 0-0. We brought the intensity level up and the heart up.’’
For Bath, Briggs saw plenty of improvement over a 4-0 loss to Continental.
“We were a little more controlled this game and played the style we wanted to play,” Briggs said. “We got the shots on target we were looking for. Ultimately, the last part is taking those shots and putting them in the net.’’
Tom Usher wrote this story for The Lima News. Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
