Bowling Green junior Tomas Meek (14), right, and St. John’s Jesuit’s Ethan Batdorf (8), left, chase after the ball during the second half of a district final match on Saturday at Springfield High School. St. John’s Jesuit defeated Bowling Green 3-0. (Scott W. Grau/Sentinel-Tribune)
HOLLAND — For the second straight year, Bowling Green boys soccer reached the district finals, only this year they moved up a notch from Division II to D-I.
In this year’s D-I final at Springfield Community Stadium on Saturday, the Bobcats fell to Toledo St. John’s, 3-0, and BG saw their season end at 13-6-1.
BG coach Josh Fox says 10 seniors, goalkeeper Max Haynes, forwards Grant Sonner and Ethan Decker, midfielders Cole Ash, Carter Broshious, and Dempster Fox, and defenders Noah Cope, Eli Metzger, Chad Mierzejewski, and Paul Archer, have taken the BG program to new heights.
“I’m really proud of the group, the senior class — they’ve certainly left their mark on the program with back-to-back district finals and competing for a league title this year,” coach Fox said.
“I’ll always have a special place in my heart for those guys, changing the program’s perception and they left it in a much better place than when they walked in the door.”
BG, 7-2-1 in the Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division, finished second to league champion Springfield (9-3-6, 7-0-3), but Metzger shared Player of the Year honors with Springfield sophomore Aiden Sloan.
BG first team All-NLL selections include Metzger (three goals) and junior forwards Tomas Meek (nine goals, 10 assists) and Luca Brininger (12 goals, one assist). Second team Bobcats are Ash (one goal, five assists) and Sonner (11 goals, two assists).
Decker finished the season with three goals and two assists, Broshious and junior midfielder Aden Kendrick had one goal and one assist each, Cope scored one goal, Dempsey Fox had two assists, and Archer and junior defender Austin Lewis had one assist apiece. Haynes finished the season with 40 saves and 10 shutouts.
Fox said this year’s BG team feared no one, including St. John’s, which won the Detroit Catholic High School League in their first year competing and were ranked 13th in the Ohio state coaches’ Division I poll.
“I think that’s one of the biggest differences since I’ve been here. Five years ago we would have worrried about that stuff. We would have payed more attention to the ranking and what was on the shirt, what school they go to, and now it just doesn’t matter,” coach Fox said.
“They’ve been in big games and played good teams and we feel like we can compete with anybody on our best day. Today wasn’t that but we are still pretty darned good.”
In the loss to St. John’s, the Bobcats played the Titans to a 0-0 tie through the first 40 minutes. St. John’s had just a 7-5 advantage in shots, and BG had three shots on goal to the Titans’ two.
However, in the second half, the Titans outshot the Bobcasts 10-2, including 5-1 in shots on net, and scored three times to pull away.
“We certainly played a little bit more defensive in the first half, which was part of our plan,” coach Fox said. “In the second half, we got caught with too many guys forward.
“They did a good job on the first goal on a counter attack — credit to them. It’s tough to see that first one go in when you are working so hard, and then they found a second goal. We tried to get more numbers forward and then they found that third.”
It took 12 minutes and 25 seconds into the second half, but senior forward Quinn Wiklendt broke away on a counter, beating a defender and Haynes to put the Titans on the board. It is what Wiklendt can do, says St. John’s coach Claudio Cabrera.
“I think the one thing that Quinn can do really well is one-touch,” Cabrera said. “When we are really sharp, you can see guys like Quinn are really fast and really accurate and play their roles. It’s good to have them because in situations like this one they can finish a game.”
Less than three minutes later, St. John’s senior defender Eddie Heywood scored from inside the keeper’s box from a throw-in. Senior midfielder T.J. Hall scored the third goal on an assist from junior defender Adam Kashk with 3:34 remaining in the game.
“We came in hungry to score. The first half I don’t think we were hungry enough,” said St. John’s starting senior midfielder Ethan Batdorf, who hails from Perrysburg.
“We’ve just been working hard all season and in-season and we’re ready for the game and we showed it,” Batdorf continued.
Cabrera said the Titans changed their strategy after halftime.
“We talked and we realized that we needed to do a couple things to improve the game, especially the way that we were playing,” Cabrera said.
“We were trying to move really fast, but we needed to keep it at our feet and try to be a little bit more composed, and I think the kids applied that, and all the goals that we scored came from those that we build up from the middle of the field.”
St. John’s has three players from Perrysburg — Batdorf, starting senior defender Charles Uveges, and sophomore forward George DeWood.
Batdorf said he and his teammates took pride in winning the DCHSL championship in their first year competing.
“It meant a lot to us,” Batdorf said. “We knew that the teams we were playing were good, but we decided to just finish them off and we won the games.”
In a regional tournament semifinal, St. John’s took on another DCHSL member, rival Toledo St. Francis, on Tuesday at Bowling Green High School’s Bobcat Stadium.
“They are a good side, so credit to them and good luck to them the rest of the way,” coach Fox said.
