SANDUSKY — Ottawa Hills knew if its defense stood, the offense would come.
Despite shutting down Hanoverton United, the Green Bears controlled the pace in the first half, but couldn't score.
No. 6 Ottawa Hills got a goal from Harley Talbott just more than four minutes into the second half and the Green Bears rolled from there, topping No. 11 Hanoverton United, 4-0, in a Division III regional semifinal at Perkins High School on Wednesday.
"The defense was stellar," Ottawa Hills coach Brian Hanudel said. "Our offense is getting a little frustrated going against them in practice. Iron sharpens iron and, when you have stellar defense like we've had lately, it's really helped our offense click as well."
Ottawa Hills improves to 16-4-1 and faces No. 9 Ottoville (19-0-2) in a regional final at 3 p.m. Saturday at Tiffin Columbian High School.
"We saw them last year," said Hanudel of Ottoville. "It's another team that has a great season going. They're stingy on the goal side and giving up goals. They've scored a ton, so we're going to hopefully find some film and take a look at them and see where we can work our strengths."
The Green Bears had a plethora of chances in the first half, but couldn’t get anything past Golden Eagles' goalie Ethan Hively. It was Alex Duran who had a couple of solid chances, but five shots on goal in the first half for OH turned up no goals.
"I didn't have time to say anything," said Hanudel of his halftime speech. "My assistant coaches had a few tweaks to make. It was a positive mood. We did control possession, so we knew [a goal] was coming. It was about the ball finding the back of the net."
Talbott broke through early in the second half. His shot rocketed past Hively to put Ottawa Hills up 1-0 just 4:04 into the second half.
"Harley never quits," said Hanudel of the senior. "He's an energizer bunny. He's as fast as the best of them and he puts himself in the right spots. He has so much pride on both ends of the ball that he's going to get in the right position to score."
United (17-2-2) entered having scored 139 goals in their 20 matches before Wednesday, so it seemed unlikely one goal would be enough. Trying to balance scoring a second goal versus playing tough defense to keep the Golden Eagles off the scoreboard was tricky at times for Ottawa Hills.
The Green Bears kept pressing forward, and a corner kick by OH resulted in Brandon Lingo finding the back of the net for a 2-0 advantage with 17:17 remaining.
"Brandon has been there all season to find the right spot to get the goals," Hanudel said. "It was really exciting to see him get something to pay off."
Still not taking their foot off the gas, Ottawa Hills continued its dominating performance with controlling possession. The Green Bears paid especially close attention to United sophomore Maddox Andrea, who entered the game with 46 goals this season. OH made it difficult for Andrea to get possession, much less get shots on goal.
"We've come up against 40, 30, 20-goal scorers all season long," Hanudel said. "We build our schedule for that reason. It's just keeping an eye on him and knowing where he is at all times. You have to be ready to step early on him."
Duran finished off the win in spectacular fashion for the Green Bears. He scored with 10:33 left and added a penalty kick with 1:36 remaining to seal the victory. United had allowed just five goals all season before Ottawa Hills scored four.
"We feed off our goals," Hanudel said. "Once we got that first one, we knew another one was coming. We didn't want to give up one to let them have any sort of confidence going at us."
Ottoville advanced to Saturday's regional final bybeating Mansfield Christian, 1-0. Ottoville and Ottawa Hills are familiar and will do battle for a spot in the state semifinals.
"The regional semifinals and regional final were both in Tiffin last year," Hanudel said. "We're familiar with the field and somewhat familiar with the opponent. My seniors have two state semifinals in their career, so we're tried and tested. We're hungry."
First Published November 3, 2022, 1:33 a.m.
