Elida Sectional: Coldwater 2 Delphos St. Johns 0

The Ohio High School Athletic Association tournament often pits teams that played in the regular season against one another once again. Such was the case in the Girls D 3 soccer sectional at Elida on Wednesday evening.  Delphos St. Johns had defeated Coldwater 3 - 0 on the Cavaliers home pitch on September 3rd. Based on the previous meeting the Blue Jays came in as the higher seed in the tournament.  From the opening whistle it was apparent seeding would have little bearing on this contest.



The Cavaliers started aggressively using excellent team speed and determination in winning 50 / 50 balls all over the pitch then countering hard to goal. They set the Blue Jays back on their heels early and never let up. It was a much more dominant performance than the 2 - 0 final score would indicate. In fact. the story within the game was St. John's junior goalkeeper Sam Wehri who put on quite a show in support of her team throughout the match.  It was one of the better goalkeeping performances I have seem in 20 + years of high school soccer. With solid decisions and aggressive execution in the face of constant pressure from the Coldwater attack Wehri kept her team in contention.

Coldwater's first score originated off a throw-in from senior defender Brittany Gillis to senior forward Leslie Stelzer.  As the St. Johns defender overplayed Stelzer to go outside Gillis read the action perfectly and played the throw inside.  Stelzer pivoted to her right onto the ball and found herself in behind the defense from where she finished past Wehri.

In the second half Cavalier senior Paige Siefring attempted to chip Wehri from a distance of 27 yards on the right flank. Wehri was able to make the initial save by deflecting the ball off course but an opportunistic Holly Rindler was there to finish the play and put Coldwater up 2 - 0.

Delphos St. Johns played hard throughout the match with seniors Samantha Bonifas and Madison Kreeger in particular applying pressure to Coldwater's defense.  The Cavalier defense and especially backs Brittany Gillis, Paige Siefring and Ashley Backs kept the Blue Jays at bay.

Delphos St. Johns finishes their season at 6-8-3 while Coldwater moves to 8-9-0 and on to play next Wednesday evening at 5:00 pm in the Bath District against the winner of Saturday's Ft. Jennings vs Kalida match up.
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