KALIDA – For the second time in just over a calendar year the Kalida Wildcats downed rival Ottoville in the district semifinals on Wednesday evening 1-0 to advance to the Saturday afternoon finals.
Ottoville entered tonight’s contest sporting a 15-0-2 record and a 4-0 win over their Putnam County rivals in the same venue on October 9th, but were unable to break through to the scoreboard on this night as the stingy Wildcat defense provided limited opportunities on the offensive side for the Big Green to take advantage of.
Kalida senior Brandon Miller netted the only goal of the contest with 26:53 remaining in the opening half of play as he was able to fire a shot past Ottoville senior keeper Kaiden Trentman to give his team a 1-0 advantage they would never relent.
“Today’s game came down to who wanted it more, I thought our guys wanted it but Kalida brought a little something extra that made them play extremely well” said Ottoville head coach Dustin Markward after the game.
With the win the Wildcats (7-9-2) eliminate Ottoville for the second straight season on their own field by a 1-0 score and will now advance to take on a Continental Pirates squad that like Ottoville defeated the Wildcats earlier in the regular season.
“We were off our game today, we made a few mistakes in the back and didn’t do enough up front. Hopefully our younger classmen can learn from this game and what we accomplished this season and build from it moving forward.”
Continental took on the Bath in the second game and utilized a pair of goals from the PCL Player of the Year Rhenn Armey to eliminate the Wildcats 2-0 and earn their place in Saturday’s district finals.
Armey, a sophomore standout for the Pirates blasted a shot from the top of the box with 2:09 left in the first half past Bath’s Tanner Delecerda for the first of his two goals on the evening.
Through a physical and field positioned second half the leading scorer in the league hit for his second marker of the night on a penalty kick with 5:40 remaining after being knocked down from behind inside the box by a Wildcat defender.
Penalty kick goal by @CHSAthleticDept Rhenn Armey gives pirates a 2-0 lead over Bath pic.twitter.com/H0tpFICwAB
— Michael Hirn (@MichaelHirnPBP) October 29, 2020
Saturday afternoon’s district finals will be a chance at redemption for the Pirates (14-4) as they have had three of their past four seasons come to an end on the Kalida grass.