The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Bay — title town
Rockets win 5th regional title in six years, 17th in school history
MANSFIELD » Bay won its fifth regional championship in six years, beating Elida, 4-1, Nov. 4 to advance to the Division II final four.
The Rockets dominated possession in the first half and held a 1-0 lead at the break, but Elida (19-20) upped the tempo to start the second, catching Bay off guard, and broke its scoreless streak with an own goal by the Rockets.
With all the momentum shifted Elida’s way, Bay (14-4-1) struggled
to match the Bulldogs’ energy until a breakthrough in the 58th minute.
Senior Colin MacMillan received the ball about 30 yards from net and carried it up the left channel, and after beating Elida’s right back, slotted a low shot off his left foot to the far bar to break the tie and give the Rockets a 2-1 lead.
“That’s what my coaches have been pushing me to do all season, get that ball on my left and just try to cut it in all the way down the left side and I was happy enough to just get, you know, that many inches in front of him and just slip the ball in,” MacMillan said. “I have to thank my teammates for those good balls down the sideline.
“It’s a killer to go through the second half knowing you got an own goal, but getting that second goal really helped our guys and I have to give them credit. They got psyched after that so I was just happy to be a part of it.”
The Rockets were pretty dejected during the opening minutes of the second half but MacMillan’s goal was the rallying point they needed to put the game away. Noah Beck netted a goal nearly two minutes later and Kevin Joyce’s goal at 6:43 sealed the deal for Bay.
“We weathered a pretty nasty storm there,” Bay coach Bobby Dougherty said. “Having the own goal, and it’s (Elida’s) only shot (to that point) which is the crazy part, that’s the shot that goes in the back of the net . ...
“Once that counterattack goal came out and that was the kind of thing, (Elida) was throwing everything forward trying to finish this thing off and that left that back side open. Collin, a great sub in there, jumped in, buries it with his left foot and that was it. You could kind of see the game had changed. It was done.
“I think really the mood of our players was like, ‘OK, we can breathe again, we’ve scored, we’re ahead,’ and everybody relaxed. Elida had all the fight in the world and really took it to us for about 10, 12 minutes there in that second half after that (own) goal was scored and we just couldn’t get a hold of the ball.”
Bay advances to a D-II state semifinal and will face Aurora Nov. 8 at a site to be determined.
The win gives the Rockets their 17th regional title in program history.
“Where we’re at right now is we’re not afraid of anybody and we don’t take anybody for granted,” Dougherty said. “We knew Elida was going to be a strong, big, physical, mature team, exactly what they were.
“We always tease we just want to have another practice. Just one more practice. That means we won and we don’t have to collect uniforms. I hate collecting uniforms.
“There’s one team that’s going to smile at the end of this whole thing and everyone else is going to go, ‘Oh, I wish I could’ve,’ but we just want one more practice. Come Monday we’ll train again and we’ll hope for one more practice after that.”