Kalida’s Braylon Smith reacts after scoring a goal against Miller City during Wednesday’s Division V District semifinal in Kalida.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
KALIDA – A battle of Wildcats ensued on Wednesday evening for the right to play in Saturday’s Division V District final and No. 2 seeded Kalida ended Miller City’s season with a convincing 4-1 victory behind four Braylon Smith goals.
It took Smith less than 10 minutes to find the back of the net twice in a game that Kalida led early and never faltered.
“Braylon (Smith) played with a lot of fire inside him tonight,” said Kalida coach Ryan Birkemeier. “He felt like he should have been PCL Player of the Year and he didn’t get that, so he was looking for a little bit of respect in this game. He played with a real chip on his shoulder.”
Wednesday’s match was a physical one on both sides of the ball. The two Putnam County League members were familiar with each other and knew what to expect.
Two yellow cards were issued in the game. One to Caden Palte, and the other to Kevin Deitering.
“With Miller City, it’s always going to be a tough match and they’ll never back down no matter what the score is,” Birkemeier said. “You have to be ready all game long, be on your toes and stick to your assignments, and we did that really well in the first half. We didn’t do that as well in the second half tonight.”
Miller City avoided the shutout 12 minutes into the second half when Henry Rump deflected a ball into the back of the net.
Kalida’s defense limited Miller City to just two shots on goal.
“Tonight we had a few guys that we had our eyes on, and we put our best guys on them and told them not to let them through,” Birkemeier said. “They did a great job as individuals but we need to work on it more as a team.”
With the win, Kalida punches its ticket to Saturday’s district final against top-seeded Ottoville, who’s looking for its fourth consecutive District championship.
Kalida defeated Ottoville 2-0 in the regular season.
“We got the win over them earlier this season, so obviously they will be coming out guns a blazing and we will need to be on our A game,” Birkemeier said.
Box score
Miller City 0 1 – 1
Kalida 4 0 – 4
Scoring Summary
K — Braylon Smith — 32:14, 1st
K — Braylon Smith — 30:42, 1st
K — Braylon Smith — 24:33, 1st
K — Braylon Smith — 16:40, 1st
MC — Henry Rump — 28:52, 2nd
Nate Stidham wrote this story for LimaScores.com
