The girls of fall: Roughriders, Ella Jacobs beat Celina; 1 win away from winning WBL title.
Roughriders take down Celina; are 1 win away from clinching WBL title
CELINA — Ella Jacobs has been close on numerous occasions to scoring a goal on a direct kick with the way she can boom the ball from midfield but she still has not recorded a goal this season in that fashion.
Until Tuesday.
The freshman not only put the ball in the back of the net once, she did it twice — the first as a goal with 12:42 remaining in the game and the second as an assist when her mortar shot found Jewel Niekamp, who headed the ball into the back of the net with 3:59 left in the game.
Those two goals and another shutout performance by the defense — their eighth of the season — handed the Roughriders a 2-0 Western Buckeye League win against rival Celina.
“I think Ella was getting mad because she had multiple opportunities, she was off frame and she is almost always on frame,” said Roughriders coach Nick Wilson. “I’m not even quite sure how that one went in but I know it was high and it bounced and cleared the keeper. We’ll take it.
“The second one was absolutely beautiful. That was everything we needed.”
Without their leading scorer and what was at stake affecting the Riders’ (10-3-1, 7-0-1 WBL) nerves in the first half, the team won their ninth straight game and still have not lost or tied since the calendar changed from summer to fall — fittingly making this team the girls of fall.
And so far, they are living up to it.
Jacobs got the Roughriders on the board when she took a direct kick at midfield after Kendall Dieringer drew a foul. Jacobs had been taking direct shots all season long and took a number of them on Tuesday — but those shots were just off the mark or over the goal. With 12:42 left in the half though, Jacobs shot the ball straight to the goal as it bounced directly in front of Celina goalkeeper Kennedy Henry and over the senior’s head into the net. Henry looked to be distracted by Aerial Fast, who was in the middle of the 18-yard box and attempted to head the ball as Henry tried to play the ball off Fast’s header, but the ball never made contact with the freshman’s head.
“Aerial is a very solid player,” Wilson said of Fast. “She hasn’t won a game ball yet and not for the fact that she hasn’t earned it — it’s been that some players may have earned it a little bit more. And I’ve told her ‘I don’t care if you win a game ball if you keep playing the way you play by throwing your assist out there and occasionally burying one.
“Tonight in the first half out of anybody, she played her typical self whereas some others work.”
After that goal, St. Marys attacked relentlessly, connecting again at the 3:59 mark when Jacobs booted another direct kick — this one about 35 to 40 yards from the goal on the right side as her kick found Niekamp positioned in the top of the goal box as the junior headed the ball into the net for the 2-0 lead.
“We knew coming in here that we were not walking out of here without a massive dog fight,” Wilson stated. “He [Celina coach Eric Gerker] runs an awesome program, he prepares and he knew what we were going to bring. Quite honestly in the first half, I was not happy with our effort. It was not our typical style of play and I will give all the credit to Celina for that. They completely took us out of our game.”
The Bulldogs tried to play spoiler just like St. Marys did last year to the Bulldogs to keep them from winning the WBL title. A tie a Tuesday would have given Bath the lead back in the league standings after the Wildcats defeated the Cougars earlier that night.
Celina played the Roughriders tough in the first half by winning every 50-50 ball, limiting the Riders’ offensive chances and being aggressive to the ball.
“They were winning every ball in the first half,” Wilson said. “They were nervous and I think it was the stakes involved and they did not play a typical Lady Riders soccer game and credit Celina for taking us out of our mix.”
But just like they did last week against Bath and being a player down on Saturday against Anna, the Roughriders prevailed and now the girls of fall are one win away from a second WBL title in three seasons. St. Marys will host Defiance next Tuesday.
“We’ve been on a roller coaster here,” Wilson said. “It’s been big game, big game, big game and I hope they’re not done. The cards are definitely in our favor.
“We didn’t want to go there. Could Shawnee beat Bath? Sure. If Bath knows their shot is through Shawnee, I think that may get a little ugly there. But it is so nice to be able to take that out of their hands and keep it in our hands. I couldn’t be prouder.”