WAPAKONETA – Any coach is pleased when his team does exactly what he talked about in his pre-game speech.
Elida boys soccer coach Tom Thomas talked to his team about getting off to a fast start Monday night when they traveled to play Wapakoneta in Western Buckeye League action at Ryan Stadium.
The Bulldogs took that talk to heart and pounded home a goal only one minute and thirty-eight seconds into the contest on their way to a 6-0 victory.
Jake Taylor gave Elida that early lead when he found himself alone inside the left side of the 18-yard box and drilled home the goal into the right side of the net to put the Bulldogs up 1-0 at the 38:22 mark of the first half.
“We always like to start fast and I talked to them about that in the pre-game.” Thomas said. “I was very pleased with the guys.”
Elida controlled the game the entire first half as they consistently possessed the ball and kept the Redskins from getting off a shot in the half.
The Bulldogs scored again at the 17:56 mark when freshman Seth Mahlmeister scored the first of his three goals in the game. Mahlmeister scored from point blank range off of an assist from Taylor to give Elida a 2-0 lead going to the half-time break.
“That (early goal) set the tone for the game plus they are good team.” Wapakoneta coach Keith Rambin said.
The second half turned into a runaway for the Bulldogs as they posted four more goals and kept the Redskins (5-4, 2-2 WBL) from scoring.
Logan Johnson scored the third Elida (7-0, 4-0 WBL) goal on a rebound at the 30:33 mark before Mahlmeister scored again with 21:53 left to play. Cade Parker scored with 6:07 to play before Mahlmeister pounded the ball into an open net with only 1:16 left to play.
“We wanted to do what we like to do which is possess the ball,” Thomas said. “We try to get transition from our back players and they met the challenge; plus we were able to finish tonight.”
The Bulldogs took 11 shots on goal while their goal keeper, Caleb Jones, recorded three saves to record the shut-out.
Wapakoneta took three shots on goal in the contest while their keeper, Ross Burkhart, made five saves on the night.
“We are trying to find our identity and we have to keep plugging away.” Rambin said. “We will take a deep breath and come back tomorrow. We are struggling offensively and we may move some players around and see what happens.”
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