’Riders ride hard over Jays

By Jim Metcalfe, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Thursday, August 21, 2008 (1 year, 6 months ago)
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DELPHOS — St. John’s was looking for a good measuring stick in its girls soccer opener Monday versus St. Marys Memorial.
They got it, with the Lady Roughriders steamrolling the Lady Blue Jays 9-0 on a warm summer afternoon/evening at The Annex.
The ’Riders were so dominant, their defense gave up only one shot.
“St. Marys is definitely one of the better, if not the best, teams in the area. They outcommunicated us and were far more consistent,” Jays coach Jodi Hoersten said.
Roughrider coach Paul Dingledine concurred with that assessment.
“We work a lot on being the first to the ball on the 50/50s and any contested ball. I felt we were more aggressive and outhustled them,” he noted. “We always tell the girls that if they know the defense has their back, take a chance on those balls in the air. I felt we finished off our shots very well tonight; that’s been a focus for us.”
The visitors squeezed off 21 shots-on-goal against sophomore goalie Samantha Stant (12 saves) and they controlled the action most of the way.
They got on board with 32:50 showing in the first half. Carrie Schlatter delivered a beautiful touch pass to the foot of Katie Heitkamp, who went right to left from 12 yards to beat Stant for a 1-0 edge.
The guests continued their attack and broke through a rebuilt Blue Jay defense again at 22:14. Kaysha Dietz made a nice run down the right side and went high to the middle from 14 yards for 2-0.
At the 19:41 mark of the half, it became 3-0, via a penalty kick from Alysia Nagel.
With 8:59 on the first-half clock, Dietz made it a 4-goal bulge. Heitkamp’s lead pass got her 1-on-1 with the keeper and she went left to right inside the post.
Memorial wasted no time — a mere 2:34 — to get on the board in the second half. Laura Marsee delivered a perfect cross pass from the right sideline to a wide-open Heitkamp on the left-post doorstep. She shot it high right for the tally.
At 35:34, Heitkamp and Dirtz teamed up for an in-close goal and a 6-0 spread.
At the 28:53 mark, Heitkamp got behind the defense and fired left to right from 12 yards for a 7-0 bulge.
The Jays finally got their only shot of the night at 26:54 when Tatum Mauk tried to knee in a corner from close range but backup keeper Brandi McCollister (subbing for starter Macy Ferrall) deflected it out of bounds.
The lead mushroomed to 8 at 23:33 when Samantha Davenport got on a run down the left side and her 14-yarder hit the right post and ricocheted in.
The Roughriders put the finishing touches on this night with a mere 1:37 to go.
Down the left side, Marsee made a nice back pass to Nagel, whose 12-yarder found the right side for a 9-0 score.
“I’m glad it’s over. If we learn the lessons St. Marys taught us: about communication and aggressiveness, it’s worth it,” Hoersten added. “At the same time, we had a lot of players in new positions for them and first-game jitters might have had a lot to do with it. We did OK for the first 10 minutes and then got tired and stopped. Hopefully, we will be more comfortable the next game.”
That would be a 1 p.m. showdown versus Fort Jennings Saturday.
“As in any first game, there are some things we need to work on but it’s mostly little things. For example, a cross pass; we have to learn to be there because in some matches, you’re only going to get one or two chances,” Dingledine added.
St. Marys entertains Kalida at 5 p.m. Saturday (no JV matchup).

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