Ottoville’s Preston Mansfield slides to get to the ball against Kalida’s Jaden Smith (left) and Jacob Siebeneck during Saturday’s Division III district final at Kalida. See more high school soccer photos at LimaScores.com.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
KALIDA — Ottoville’s Kellen Schlagbaum was looking for an opening.
Early in the second half, he found one on the Kalida doorstep.
Schlagbaum scored the match’s first goal and helped Ottoville to a 2-0 victory against Kalida in the Division III boys soccer district championship game Saturday afternoon at Mark Czubik Field.
Preston Mansfield scored the other goal for the Big Green.
Ottoville (18-0-2) returns to the regionals for the second straight year after reaching the regional finals last year before falling to Ottawa Hills.
Ottoville will meet the Mansfield Christian, a 1-0 winner against Bluffton, in the regional semifinals at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Tiffin.
Kalida, the Putnam County League champion, ends its season 12-3-4.
Ottoville controlled the bulk of the match, including most of the second half.
The Big Green outshot Kalida, 11-2.
“We had to bring the energy,” Ottoville coach Dustin Markward said. “The first half we brought it, but I said we’re heading into the second half tied up (0-0) and we had to pick up the energy. Kudos to our team. They brought it the second half.’’
Kalida goalkeeper Brady Fersch made seven saves.
Ottoville goalkeeper Alex Suever had two saves.
Ottoville had a 2-1 advantage in corner kicks.
Kalida and Ottoville battled to a 2-2 tie during the regular season.
“They came stronger than we did this time,” Kalida coach Ryan Birkemeier said. “Our will and determination in the last game seemed to be a little more toward wanting to win. Today, we kind of let them do what they wanted.
“But there’s only two teams who make it here (to the district finals). … We got here again, but we just didn’t get it done today.’’
The match was scoreless at the half, but the Big Green had a 7-1 shot edge by that time.
Ottoville started the second half coming through the midfield in waves.
Ottoville midfielders Grant Leis, Quinton Schnipke, Trey Landwehr and Jayden Saxton continually pushed the ball up to forwards Schlagbaum and Mansfield.
“The midfield was something I stressed coming into today,” Markward said. “We had to have a strong midfield play because Kalida usually has a pretty strong midfield. … I would give credit to our entire midfield.’’
Schlagbaum got his first shot when Saxton dribbled up the goal line toward the Kalida net.
Schlagbaum was planted on the upper-right corner of the goal box, 6-yards from the net.
Saxton slipped a pass off the goal line to Schlagbaum, who spun a twisting shot just pass the goalkeeper into the left corner of the net.
That gave the Big Green a 1-0 lead with 31:26 left in the match.
It marked Schlagbaum’s 39th goal of the year.
“I took the front post and got a good touch on it,” Schlagbaum said. “Normally, I like to pound it, but he (the goalkeeper) was too far out and gave me a little bit of an opening and I tried to sneak it in and it ended up working out.’’
Ottoville made it 2-0 on a pass from the right wing into the heart of the box by Schnipke.
Mansfield one-timed the shot on a kick out of the air and into the back of the net.
That came with 6:22 to play.
“I saw the ball coming up in the air and I had to go for it,” Mansfield said. “I went up with my leg and luckily it went in. And that was a nice ball in (by Schnipke).’’
It marked Mansfield’s 27th goal of the season.
“That was the one we needed to carry us on,” Markward said.
Kalida had a chance to score near the six-minute mark when Drew Fersch had a free kick from straight-on, 25-yards out.
The shot hit the Ottoville defensive wall and bounced back. Fersch’s rebound shot wasn’t on the frame.
While Kalida won the PCL title, Ottoville celebrated its second straight trip to the regionals.
“This is so much better than PCL,” Schlagbaum said. “I’m glad we won this.’’
Tom Usher wrote this story for LimaScores.com. Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
