Boys soccer: Ottoville defeats LCC in sectonal final

Oct. 24—OTTOVILLE — Thirty seconds was all it took.

That's all the time Ottoville needed to score its first goal.

From there, the Big Green was in complete control.

Ottoville rolled to an 11-0 boys soccer victory over Lima Central Catholic in the Division III sectional finals Saturday at Ottoville.

Ottoville center midfielder Kellen Schlagbaum led the way with a career-high five goals and one assist.

It was his first hat trick.

"He (Schlagbaum) started off the year hurt (with a back injury), so he's definitely hungry," Ottoville coach Dustin Markward said. "He's wanted to make up for what he's lost. We didn't have him for the first six games of the season."

Ottoville (10-2-5) advances to the district semifinals against Spencerville at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Kalida.

LCC ends the year 5-12.

LCC coach Tim McNamara was without several key starters.

"We were missing our starting goalie (Oli Bruno), one of our starting defenders (Frankie McDonald) and we had to change formations and try to do something new and it's hard to work on a new formation in your first game," McNamara said. "But they (the Big Green) were quick and got the ball through and scored a couple of goals. They're a good team."

The Big Green knocked off LCC 11-0 during the regular season. This time Ottoville led 7-0 at the half.

Ottoville outshot LCC, 25-3. The Big Green took 14 corner kicks, while LCC had one.

"We wanted to set the tempo right away and I thought we did a really good job on that," Markward said. "We wanted to bring the energy and we brought it the first five minutes and really set the tempo of the game."

Ottoville goalkeeper Alex Seuver had two saves for the shutout.

LCC goalkeeper Keonte Newell made five saves, while his teammate Noah Wilson had two saves.

Scoring one goal for the Big Green were the following: Will Miller, Grant Leis, Preston Mansfield, Quinton Schnipke, Andy Moorman and Jackson Ricker.

The Big Green's midfield controlled play and kept the vast majority of the match in the LCC defensive end.

In the first half, Ottoville's defenders and midfielders made stops and fired over-the-top passes for breakaway chances.

On Ottoville's first breakaway chance, Schlagbaum got loose just past midfield, dribbled within 14 yards and chipped a high shot into the net.

That gave the Big Green a 1-0 lead at the 39:30 mark of the first half.

"It helped us get off to a quick start," Schlagbaum said. "We needed it. We really haven't had that this year. It felt good to put us on the right track from the start."

Next, it was Will Horstman, just inside the 18-yard box, flipping a pass forward to Mansfield, who fired a 12-yard shot into the net.

That gave the Big Green a 2-0 lead with 35:38 left in the first half.

Schnipke then took a breakaway pass, dribbled in to 12 yards and hit a low liner into the net.

That gave the Big Green a 3-0 lead with 35:16 left in the first half.

Schlagbaum's second goal game came just outside the goal box on a low liner at the 33:49 mark of the first half.

That pushed the Ottoville lead to 4-0.

"The key thing was moving the ball around quickly," Markward said. ... "We really stress strong midfield play, but it also helps that our defense gets involved with that."

Leis cut loose a high shot from just outside the 18-yard box and it found the back of the net. That gave Ottoville a 5-0 lead with 31:54 left in the first half.

That gave Ottoville five goals on its first five shots.

Schlagbaum set up Miller for a breakaway goal at the 10:57 mark of the first half. Now the Ottoville lead had ballooned to 6-0.

Schlagbaum got his three-goal hat trick on a shot from the top of the box, 20-yards out. That gave Ottoville a 7-0 lead with 10:24 left in the half.

"I take pride in my ability to shoot from the outside," Schlagbaum said. "I keep trying to practice that and do it in games, as well."

From there, the Ottoville midfield and defense locked down the LCC attack.

Ottoville is looking to make a strong tournament run after not winning the Putnam County League during the season.

"We kind of underperformed this year in our opinion," Schlagbaum said. "We'll use that as motivation."

Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.