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New Knoxville's Favian Caiola (22) and Carson Lammers (9) celebrate after a goal against LCC.
NEW KNOXVILLE - Kicking off just a few streets away from the shooting range, New Knoxville soccer provided all the firepower in a 6-0 Division VI sectional semifinal win over fellow Western Ohio Soccer League member Lima Central Catholic at New Knoxville Community Park.
With the win, the Rangers (11-4-2) advance to the sectional final against two-seeded Kalida on the Wildcats' home field on Thursday at 6 p.m. A win would see New Knoxville win multiple postseason games for the first time since 2018, when the team bested Temple Christian and LCC before falling to Kalida in the district semifinal.
It took just under eight minutes for the scoring to start, and a familiar face got it going. After dominating the early possession, Ty Koenig played a ball toward Favian Caiola right in front of goal, who smashed it past the keeper to put the Rangers in front with 32:13 on the clock.
"We came out confident. We've picked things up and are on a seven-game winning streak now, so we're riding the high of that. The kids came out ready to play today," said New Knoxville coach Patrick Covert, who was named the WOSL boys Coach of the Year earlier in the day.
New Knoxville's Evan Fledderjohann tries to stay ahead of LCC's Josiah Manley.
While New Knoxville kept creating chances, the next goal came soon enough. With just over 20 minutes left in the half, Evan Fledderjohann doubled the host's lead. A flurry of close shots from Caiola was kept out by Thunderbird keeper Eli Fields, who spilled the ball to Koenig, who rifled it back toward the goal. Fledderjohann wasted little time finishing off the chance with a strong shot to make it a 2-0 game.
More shots came, and eventually a third Ranger found the back of the net with six minutes left in the half. After a cross was spilled by the LCC defense, Ty Schroeder waited patiently for the ball to find him at the far post. Once it did, the junior placed it perfectly across the face of the goal and into the bottom corner.
The half came to a close soon after, and New Knoxville carried the big lead into the break. The Rangers outshot the T-Birds 13-5 in the first half, and held an 11-3 margin in shots on goal.
If any fans waited a minute before getting to their seats, they missed the next goal. With 39:02 on the clock, Caiola collected his second in beautiful fashion. The senior forward collected the ball at the edge of the box and swiftly flicked the ball over the LCC defender, before controlling it in the box and calmy placing the ball past the keeper to make it 4-0 just like that.
Caiola was not done yet, however, and he made it a 5-0 game with 20 minutes left. Already having two from his feet, the WOSL first-teamer positioned himself well for Fledderjohann's cross from in front of the Ranger's bench. The cross was right on the money, and so was Caiola's header as it floated over the keeper for the fifth New Knoxville goal. It was Caiola's 32nd goal of the season and it completed his second hat trick over LCC this season.
"He's a stud and he's been our rock," said Covert of Caiola. "He's got great IQ, he's fast, smart, loves the game and just goes after it and wants to score."
The final stage of the game saw the T-Birds try to avoid the 8-0 mercey rule, but the Rangers kept going. Freshman Caleb Hoge was the scorer after Carson Lammer's long throw-in found Hoge in the box, who did just enough to get it under the dive of the keeper for a fitting finale.
New Knoxville finished with 16 shots on target compared to LCC's six. Rangers' keeper Connor Hoge finished with six saves on a simple day in net. Koenig had two assists, both in the first half.
