Ottawa Hills executed to perfection against Genoa in a Division III boys soccer district semifinal on Wednesday as the Green Bears rolled to a 14-0 shutout.
Ottawa Hills (15-4-1) came into the game ranked No. 6 in the final D-III state poll of the season.
The Green Bears put on a clinic on their home turf in the first half, seizing a 6-0 lead. Ottawa Hills scored three goals over the game's first 13 minutes and scored three more over the final 11 minutes of the first half. OH then added eight more goals in the second half.
“I'm really thrilled with it,” Ottawa Hills coach Brian Hanudel said. “Sometimes you come into games like this where it's cold and windy. You don't know what to expect. They came in with some really good numbers and results. So to see the guys just play a team, moving the ball around getting them off their game and our finishing — it was just clinical. We had a lot of Grade A chances that we put away.”
Junior forward Brandon Lingo finished with four goals, including two goals in each half.
“We were moving the ball around really well, which got us those chances to score,” Lingo said. “I love to help the team out. It's good for my confidence to get those four. But a shout out to those guys that had the assists. Everyone is helping out the team as well.”
Senior midfielder Elijah Shetterly, sophomore midfielder Houssam Hajar, and sophomore forward Alex Duran each scored two goals. Junior defender Evan West and senior midfielder Danny Assi each had two key assists when the outcome was still in doubt.
Freshman Maddock Robson, senior Harley Talbott, freshman Avi Hanusz, and senior Liam Silk also scored goals in the second half.
Ottawa Hills meets Evergreen (14-4-1) on Saturday for the D-III district title at 3 p.m. at Ottawa Hills. The Vikings topped Archbold 3-2 in the second semifinal.
“It's super fun,” Shetterly said. “Everyone is trying different skills. But you know, the job's not over. We've got to play in the final on Saturday. We played well, but we have to keep it going.”
Genoa bowed out at 15-2-3. The Comets won a share of the Northern Buckeye Conference title, tying Lake with an 8-0-2 record. It was the third straight NBC title for the Comets.
The Green Bears reached the state semifinals in 2020 and 2021.
Ottawa Hills scored 2:45 into the game on a header by Hajar. The Green Bears then grabbed a 2-0 lead on a goal by Shetterly.
Duran then made a terrific, perfectly placed pass up the middle that split two Comets defenders and hit Shetterly in stride. Shetterly poked in the great pass for a 3-0 OH lead.
Genoa goalkeeper Tyler Harper then made a great leaping save to stop a free kick from Duran with 13:52 left in the first half.
But the Green Bears went up 4-0 moments later on a goal from Lingo on a great cross pass from West.
Duran, OH's leading scorer (22 goals), then added another goal a little more than a minute later for a 5-0 cushion.
Lingo put the Green Bears up 6-0, capped a hat trick just over four minutes into the second half for a 7-0 lead and then scored his fourth of the game on a perfect cross pass from Hutch Carter. The eighth goal then instituted a running clock.
Hajar added to the lead with his second goal for a 9-0 edge with just over 30 minutes left.
OH goalkeeper Julian Jaume was not tested much but made a good save with just over 30 minutes left and earned the shutout.
Robson then scored the 11th goal for OH with just under 25 minutes remaining, Talbott scored with just over 15 minutes left, Hanusz then added a 13th goal and Silk capped the scoring.
Hanudel said he did not want his team to change the way it played even with the lopsided margin.
“That can trickle into the next game,” he said. “The guys put themselves in position to put the ball in the net and they deserve the credit for it.”
Ottawa Hills shut out both Evergreen (3-0) and Archbold (1-0) during the regular season.
“We can build off of it,” Hanudel said. “Hopefully we didn't spend all of our goals too soon. There's still things that we want to work on and tweak.”
In the second semifinal, Evergreen scored two goals just 53 seconds apart near the midpoint of the first half to take an instant 2-0 lead.
Archbold had defeated Evergreen 5-4 in the regular season.
“Obviously you want to get up on a really good team,” Evergreen coach Dave Skoczyn said. “We know them. They know us. We play each other in the league and we had a really great game.”
Junior Brodie Setmire opened the scoring at 24:07 of the first half.
Tyson Woodring, Evergreen's leading scorer, then scored back-to-back goals to put the Vikings up 3-0 with 19:26 left in the first half. Woodring scored his 28th and 29th goals of the season.
“2-0 leads are awful leads. So we just kept going and going and we got another goal off a set piece,” Skocyn said. “Tyson is a such a handful for teams. When you need something done, you go to the kid that gets it done for you.”
Archbold got on the board with a goal from Krayton Kern with 1:25 left. Kern scored again moments later on a free kick to cut the lead to 3-2 with 55 seconds left. But the Blue Streaks, who won the Northwest Ohio Athletic League title, saw their season come to an end with a 12-6-1 record.
This is just the fourth season for the Evergreen program.
“These boys are hungry,” Skoczyn said. “They just always want to get better and we want to take another step.”
First Published October 26, 2022, 11:52 p.m.
