GLANDORF – Ottawa Glandorf senior striker Kelsey Erford netted a pair of quick goals in the opening minutes and finished with a hat trick as her Titans defeated visiting Swanton 6-2 in a Thursday night sectional final matchup.
A year to the day after the Titans fell to the Bulldogs in double overtime the hosts came out swinging in the opening moments of this game as Erford raced through the Swanton defense with just a minute gone to put her team on top 1-0 with a blast into the net past Bulldog keeper Frankie Nelson.
Sixteen seconds after firing the opening salvo the OG senior struck for a second time at 38:41 to push the lead to 2-0 by sending a runner past Nelson for her 18th score of the season.
Fighting a tough defense and a slippery field the Bulldogs found themselves trailing Ottawa Glandorf 3-0 early in the second half when Lilly Haselman slipped a ball past the defense and into the net with 37:52 left in the game.
Swanton, victorious last night 5-0 over Otsego kicked in their first marker with 37:03 to get within 3-1 when their second leading scorer Averie Lutz raced a ball off of the hands of Abby Warnecke and into the net to cut into the OG lead.
Ottawa Glandorf increased their advantage back to three goals with 32:08 on a Kelsey Erford shot from the left corner of the box to the top right corner of the goal on the opposite side that completed the hat trick and put the score at 4-1.
Though tagged for four goals so far in the contest, Swanton goalie Frankie Nelson made a pair of spectacular saves at 23:54 that was highlighted by her doing the splits and catching a point blank blast by the Titans to turn away a pair of would be goals.
Averie Lutz notched her ninth goal of the year with 18:10 that pulled her team back to a two goal differential at 4-2 before the Titans just moments later at 16:36 utilized a Brianna Douglas blast from the top of the box to run the lead to 5-2.
OG’s final marker came off of the right foot of freshman Myka Aldrich with just 2:06 before the final horn as she blasted a ball into the back of the net through traffic from both sides straight away at the top of the box.
Frankie Nelson finished the evening by stopping 19 shots for Swanton while Warnecke turned away 7 Bulldog shots for the Titans who outshot their guests 28-9 overall.
Swanton’s season comes to an end at 6-7-3 but with a share of the NWOAL regular season championship.
Ottawa Glandord (11-3-3) moves on to next Tuesday evening and a trip to Metamora where they will battle Evergreen in a district semifinal that kicks off at 5:00 P.M.