Tomas Meek celebrates one of his two goals in the first half of Saturday’s sectional win over St. Marys Memorial. He finished with a hat trick. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
Tomas Meek’s hat trick guided the Bowling Green High School boys soccer team to a 5-1 win over St. Marys Memorial in a Division III sectional championship at Bobcat Stadium on Saturday.
“I was happy,” BG coach Josh Fox said. “You can’t complain when you put the ball in the back of the net five times. I don’t think that’s a normal five seed. I think they’re a lot better than where they ended up. I’m glad we came out with a positive mindset and attitude, ready to win.”
With the win, the second-seeded Bobcats (13-5) advance to face Celina at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday in Elida. The Bulldogs defeated Lima Senior 9-1 to win their sectional.
Bowling Green needed just 19 minutes to open up a three-goal lead.
Luca Brininger got the Bobcats on the board just over six minutes in on a helper from Adin Metzger. Just over seven minutes after that, Meek produced his first goal in unassisted fashion.
Meek then took a pass from Jack Hover and deposited his second goal exactly 19 minutes in.
“We started the week off really well,” Meek said. “We had a positive shift from those losses (late in the season) with the (4-3) win over Southview (in the regular season finale). Our curse this season has kind of been Saturday games, so I’m happy we overcame that.
“The guys showed out today. They knew it was ride or die. We all came out with hunger and energy. I was really happy with that.”
Meek and Hayden Fox then had back-to-back shots saved over the next two minutes, but that was the last two shots of the half for Bowling Green.
St. Marys (11-6-1) generated some offense down the stretch in the half as Teigen Gulgin made a pair of saves in the final 12 minutes, while another look went wide with 9:05 left.
During that stretch, Gulgin slid to prevent a shot and got a little banged up. Kole Evans replaced him in goal with 6:12 left, while a St. Marys player also departed, but Gulgin returned for the second half.
St. Marys opened the final 40 minutes in strong fashion as Gulgin had to leap and deflect a shot over the net just 1:19 in.
The Roughriders then forced three corner kick attempts in the opening few minutes, but BG prevented opportunities on each one.
Aden Kendrick had a shot sail high with 36:35 left, while Meek did the same with 33:48. Sandwiched in between that was a high look from St. Marys on a direct kick chance.
The Roughriders then broke through as Vincent Holtzapple scored with 31:51 left, and his team nearly added another 21 seconds later, but the shot hit the crossbar. Three minutes beyond that, another free kick chance was headed away by the Bobcats.
“We’ve been there a number of times this year,” Fox said. “We build a lead, and then we concede and let teams back in. The fact that was the only one they were able to find is a positive. I’ll take it. It didn’t get to two or three, and things didn’t get much interesting after that. So that’s certainly a positive.”
Over the next few minutes, the two teams exchanged off-frame shots before the Bobcats regained momentum.
Brininger pushed the ball forward on the right side of the net and was fouled in the box, which set up a penalty kick attempt for Metzger, who had his initial attempt saved, but he quickly scored on the rebound for a 4-1 lead with 22:57 remaining.
After Meek had a shot saved in the game’s 59th minute, Kendrick was tackled by a combination of Holtzapple and Bradey Triplett in the 61st, but with no foul called, Meek corralled the loose ball and gently finessed his third goal beyond the keeper and into the lower right corner of the net.
“I thought (my performance) capped a good team display,” Meek said. “I couldn’t have done it without the guys. We all worked. We all stuck to the game plan. It just happened to benefit me the most.”
From there, St. Marys had shots on frame in the 66th, 70th and 75th minutes, but each one was saved. Another one was saved and then booted away with three minutes left.
The Bobcats had three looks over the final two minutes, including a shot just off frame from Omar Ellabboudy with less than 10 seconds remaining.
In total, BGHS had 15 shots offensively, including eight on goal.
Meek’s hat trick was his second of the season, and it was the sixth multi-goal performance of his campaign.
“If we continue to bring passion, energy and pride, the sky’s the limit,” Fox said. “We can keep playing as long as we want to. We just have to have the right mindset.”
