Ottoville’s Eryn Kemper (11) and Miller City’s Isabel Reyna compete for the ball during Thursday’s match at Ottoville. See more high school soccer photos at LimaScores.com.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
OTTOVILLE — Miller City’s Ava Rosengarten didn’t start the match.
But she wasted no time in making an immediate impact.
Rosengarten gave the team a spark off the bench and scored two goals in a 3-0 Miller City victory against Ottoville in a girls soccer match Thursday.
Miller City’s Danica Ehlers scored one goal for the Wildcats.
Miller City dominated all but five minutes and outshot Ottoville 17-2.
Miller City is 7-2, 2-1 in the Putnam County League. Ottoville is 3-2, 0-1 in the PCL.
“If you lose two PCL games, you’re done,” Miller City coach Kurt Rosengarten said of the importance of the victory. “We can’t even tie anymore. We have to win out. To come in here and get a win is huge.’’
Ava Rosengarten said she likes coming off the bench.
“It’s better for me to wait,” Rosengarten said. “I get too nervous and worked up. So I wait and go in 10 minutes into the game.
“I always try to (give my team a spark). I try to play my best.’’
Rosengarten said of his daughter, Ava, “If she’s on her game, she’s one of the better players in the county. And tonight, she was looking pretty good out there.
“As a team, this was probably one of our best complete games, from start to finish. Our passing was really on point tonight.’’
Ottoville goalkeeper Maddison Hoersten made 10 saves.
Miller City goalkeeper Liz Otto made two saves in the victory.
Miller City took three corner kicks. Ottoville didn’t have any.
“They (Miller City) played well,” Ottoville coach Doug German said. “They outhustled us. They outplayed us. They outshot us. We came out flat and we couldn’t re-group.’’
The Wildcats controlled the midfield 90 percent of the match and Ottoville only had a few scoring opportunities on the night.
At the heart of the Miller City midfield was center midfielder Isabel Reyna.
“It starts with our back four,” coach Rosengarten said. “Our two center backs on our back four (Chelsea Wilhelm and Maddie Erford) step up past midfield and they’ll control the ball. Then, they’ll give to the midfielders. Then, they feed it to our forwards.’’
Rosengarten came in at center forward in the Wildcats’ 4-3-3 formation.
She immediately gobbled up a steal and had a shot.
Then, with 24:40 left in the first half, Rosengarten came up with a loose ball on the edge of the 18-yard box.
Rosengarten then took a dribble and fired just under the crossbar from 16-yards out and it landed in the back of the net.
That gave Miller City a 1-0 lead. It held that lead at the half.
“It was a really good shot,” Rosengarten said. “I don’t think I could do it again if I tried,” she said with a laugh.
With 19:28 to play, Ehlers came down the left side of the box and chipped a shot into the net from 12-yards out.
That pushed the Miller City lead to 2-0.
Miller City capped off the scoring on a penalty kick by Rosengarten with 12:28 to play.
She lined up the PK and lined it into the lower-left corner of the net to make it 3-0, Wildcats.
“I was trying to keep it low,” Rosengarten said.
Two Ottoville players suffered injuries in the game.
Skylar Turnwald got in front of a low liner from point-blank range and took it in the forehead. She immediately fell to the ground with 35 minutes to play.
Turnwald sat out the remainder of the game.
Then, with three minutes to play, Ottoville’s Dani Swint took the worst of a collision with Rosengarten, who was dribbling through the heart of the box.
“Hopefully, they’re well,” German said. “That’s the main thing. They’ll both get tested again (for a concussion). Who cares about the game? I just hope the kids are OK. This game is immaterial at that point in time.’’
Tom Usher wrote this story for The Lima News. Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
