Ottawa-Glandorf’s players celebrate after a goal scored by Makenna Siefker in Tuesday’s game against Clear Fork.
Jessica Trinko | The Lima News
BOWLING GREEN — Ottawa-Glandorf scored on an early corner kick play then let its defense do its job the rest of the way on Tuesday in a 1-0 Division IV regional semifinal win against Clear Fork.
“Defense was the name of the game for us,” O-G coach Michelle Maag said. “We’re a defense-first team, and I think that showed tonight.”
The win at Bowling Green High School put the Titans one win away from their fourth-straight trip to the state tournament. O-G (19-2) now faces Eastwood (10-8-3), a 3-0 winner against Hubbard in the other regional semifinal. That matchup is at noon on Saturday at Clyde’s Robert J. Bishop Jr. Stadium.
The Titans made it look easy early, scoring just 3 minutes and 11 seconds into the match on a set play. Delaney Duling delivered the corner kick right where it needed to be for Makenna Siefker, the Western Buckeye League player of the year, to head it into the net.
“It was a perfect ball right to my head,” said Siefker, the Titans’ all-time leading scorer who topped 100 career goals earlier this year. “It was right over the defenders, right over the keeper, and I saw an open space in the goal, so I just headed it into the open space.”
The Titans were focused on being aggressive, Maag said.
“We talked about being a hunter when that ball is in the air, especially on corners,” she said.
The goal seemed to wake up the Colts (14-5-2), who played the Titans evenly the rest of the way. The teams each had 17 shots on goal, even if Clear Fork got a late start.
Backup goalkeeper Libbie Niese recorded the shutout for the Titans, getting eight saves, including a rocket right at her with 27 seconds left in the match. She didn’t get her first save until 19 minutes into the match when Clear Fork lobbed a 40-yard kick that Niese fielded in front of the goal before taking contact from a Colt.
That didn’t deter the sophomore goalkeeper, who stepped in this postseason when the regular-season goalkeeper, WBL second-teamer Karsyn Erford, suffered an injury.
“It’s still my first year out here, especially coming in the tournament with Karsyn’s injury,” she said. “It was a little nerve-wracking, but I have a good team behind me. I know they’ve got my back.”
The Colts challenged Niese with deep kicks, which could be hard to read on a windy Tuesday night. She came up with the save each time, especially in the second half when Clear Fork had 10 of its 17 shot attempts.
“Clear Fork is an incredible offensive team,” Maag said. “One of the weapons that they tend to use frequently is those big throws and big goal kicks, from big set pieces. They’re really good at them, right? So that was one of the focuses for us coming into this game is we wanted to make sure we defended that well.”
In the end, the defense was strong enough to put the Titans back into the regional finals for the fourth straight year.
“We started out hot, and we defended until the very end,” Niese said. “I think that’s what counted.”
Ottawa-Glandorf 1, Clear Fork 0
Clear Fork 0 0 — 0
Ottawa-Glandorf 1 0 — 1
Shots on goal: Ottawa-Glanorf 17, Clear Fork 17.
Saves: O-G-Libbie Niese 10; CF-Faith Smith 11.
Goals: O-G-Makenna Siefker 1.
Corner kicks: Ottawa-Glandorf 2, Clear Fork 0.
Reach David Trinko at 567-242-0467 or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
