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St. Marys' Ellianna Weigel (38) and Celina's Kirsten Garrity battle for the ball during Tuesday's WBL girls soccer match at Roughrider Field. The Roughriders got a goal in the first half to capture a 1-0 victory over the Bulldogs.
ST. MARYS - History has taught us to expect a tough and physical battle when Celina and St. Marys clash in girls soccer.
Recent history was repeated in the form of a Roughrider win on Tuesday.
Claire Turner headed home the lone goal off a corner kick late in the first half as the Roughriders held on for a 1-0 win to keep their seven seniors unbeaten against Celina in their high school careers.
"It's pretty special for this senior class," St. Marys coach Nick Wilson said. "There was a stretch of time when we couldn't beat Celina."
Wilson has only known success, however. He said that St. Marys hasn't lost to Celina since the 2017 season, when the Bulldogs got a 2-1 win in tournament. Since then, the Roughriders are 9-0-1 with Tuesday's win being the eighth straight in the series.
Both teams generated some action around the opposing goal box in the first half hour. But the attack of St. Marys turned it up late and was awarded a corner kick at the 3:34 mark. Sophia Menker's corner kick was headed in the net by Turner for a 1-0 lead.
Celina's Colbie Kinney (13) and St. Marys' Claire Turner chase down the ball.
"We talk about (scoring first) all the time and we finally did it," Wilson said. "It always takes a little bit out of the opponent's sails. We were trying to get a second and a third, but that one was big."
The defensive performance that followed was big, too.
Celina was the aggressor in the second half, but it couldn't sneak anything past goalie Bella Hertenstein and the St. Marys defense. Celina did nothing with a couple of free kicks from outside the goal box and three corner kicks. With a little more than 20 minutes remaining, Rachel Rammel had a shot attempt denied by Hertenstein on a breakaway.
"They are very disciplined on the back line," Celina coach Dave Hammons said. "We talked about timing runs and switching play. We just didn't execute it very well. I thought we got a little panicked after we got down by a goal. The touches and passing decisions kind of showed that. Defensively, I thought we did a good job of containing everything after we allowed that first goal. But the people who typically step up and crash and score, it just wasn't in the cards tonight. Hats off to St. Marys. They had a great game plan."
"We switched to a 3-5-2 (defense) this year and it's definitely been a learning process, but we're starting to figure out the pieces," Wilson added. "Bella was absolutely dead-on in goal tonight."
The Roughriders (3-1-1, 1-1 WBL) are back in action Thursday at Bryan. Celina (5-1-1, 1-1 WBL) is off until Saturday when the Bulldogs travel to Maumee.
St. Marys' Aubrey Birt (12) goes up to hit the ball during Tuesday's match against Celina at Roughrider Field.
