Boys soccer: Ottoville advances to fourth straight District final

KALIDA – Ottoville earned its fourth consecutive trip to the District final on Wednesday evening after defeating conference foe Continental 2-0.

The Big Green did the small things right early on, which led to their lone scoring opportunity in the first half.

Nick Brandeberry lined up for a corner kick and sent it directly off the forehead of Ottoville’s Landon Hortsman for his sixth goal of the season, putting Ottoville ahead at the 11:54 mark of the first half.

“I knew if we attacked the outside, it would give us chances,” said Ottoville coach Dustin Markward. “We executed tonight. We’ve seen each other before and goals are hard to come by at this point in the season. We scratched and crawled and finally were able to take advantage. We were fortunate in the first half. Continental had two opportunities and our back line really stepped up.”

Ottoville’s defense has not allowed a goal since Oct. 4 when they dropped a PCL match to Kalida 2-0.

With a pair of shutout victories to start their postseason journey, the Big Green defense continues to build momentum.

“Our defense does a great job not getting out of position and that’s key for us. We have the same back four from last year so that also really helps,” Markward said. “They are disciplined and we try to keep them in position. Tonight, we just wanted to keep them in front of us and take advantage of numbers.”

Lee Walston stuck his shot into the back of the net with 21:46 remaining in the game to give Ottoville some breathing room down the stretch.

Ottoville returns to the field in the district final on Saturday against Kalida.

“These games will never be easier when you reach the district finals,” Markward said. “It’s tough to get there and we’ll be ready to play on Saturday.”

Box score

Continental 0 0 – 0

Ottoville 1 1 – 2

Scoring Summary

OV — Landon Hortsman (Nick Brandeberry assist) — 11:54, 1st

OV — Lee Walston — 21:46, 2nd

Nate Stidham wrote this story for LimaScores.com