Shawnee and Bath met in a sectional final at Wapakoneta this evening. On the line was a trip to the Elida district next Wednesday evening. The temperatures hovered around 50 degrees with a stiff wind out of the west. Along with an occasional light mist it sometimes felt colder.
The two teams had last met on September 24th with Shawnee winning 3 - 1. For that game Bath was missing a couple of key players due to injury, but would be at full strength this evening. Defeating a good team twice in one season is difficult yet this is what Shawnee would be tasked with.
Shawnee got on the board in the first half when right back Lance Brown saw forward Andrew Ritchie with his hand raised signaling for a pass. Brown's diagonal pass onto Ritchie's bent run was a beautiful combination. Ritchie's first touch led him straight towards goal and an easy finish past Bath goalkeeper Cam Clark to the side netting at back post.
In the second half Trey Brock played another beautiful diagonal ball through the Bath defense to Ryan Roberts who, like Ritchie in the first half, found himself 1 v 1 with the Bath goalkeeper inside the penalty area. Roberts calmly finished to back post to put the Indian's up 2-0.
This might have been Shawnee's best all round game of the season. Troy Brinkman was once again solid in goal earning his 9th shutout on the season. Evan Bell played like the veteran center back he is in shutting down and turning away the Wildcats attack time and again. Right back Lance Brown played one of his best games of the season holding Bath's Logan Ambrister in check, distributing the ball and making dangerous runs in the attack. Jake Sevitz, Jack O'Connor and Tanner Mayer also played well in Shawnee's zonal defense as the Indians threw up a wall in front of the Wildcats attack. But if I had to name a player of the game for Shawnee it would be holding midfielder Austin Brachok who helped the Indians control center midfield defensively and got the Indians into their possession game offensively.
Bath ends their season with a 10-7-1 record.
Congratulations to the Shawnee Indians and Good Luck at Elida on Wednesday at 5:00 p.m.
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