Perrysburg’s Isaac Klapper, left, and St. Francis’ JJ Brennan battle for the ball Saturday afternoon.
J.D. Pooley | Sentinel-Tribune
PERRYSBURG — Toledo St. Francis avenged a 3-2 season opening loss to Perrysburg by defeating the Yellow Jackets, 2-0, in a Division I soccer tournament game Saturday at Steinecker Stadium.
Both St. Francis goals were scored by senior forward Caleb Trent, who found the back of the net once in each half.
The game remained scoreless for the first 30 minutes-plus, but with 9:19 remaining in the first half, the Knights took advantage of a set piece opportunity.
Senior midfielder Travis Kenner’s corner kick was banged around a little by both teams in the box, but on the bounce, Trent got his foot on the ball and one-timed a rocket past Perrysburg junior goalkeeper Isaac Revill.
Just 10 minutes and seven seconds into the second half, St. Francis senior midfielder J.J. Brennan sent a cross left into the box, and again Trent hammered it home, one-timing a hard hit shot into the net.
St. Francis improves to 11-6-1 and the Knights will take on Springfield (11-5-1) on Tuesday, Oct. 25 in a 5 p.m. district semifinal on the Blue Devils’ pitch.
St. Francis coach Michael Kern says that in many ways he has a different team than he brought to Perrysburg in the season opener, and his team was hoping to get another shot at the Yellow Jackets.
“We were definitely missing a few key players,” Kern said. “We’ve had a great out of conference schedule against St. Ignatius, Hudson, Medina.
“We felt we got a little disrespected this year and we are on the rebound. We’ve got all our returners back after a lot of adversity, but I’m really proud of all the boys.”
Perrysburg, ranked 15th in the final state coaches poll and finishing as Northern Lakes League runners-up, one-half game behind Anthony Wayne, sees its season end at 12-2-4.
“I think these boys started with me three years ago and they have helped really change this program,” Perrysburg coach Dennis Jeansonne said. “We were ranked in the state this year, undefeated for almost the entire year.
“These boys did that. These boys came on and put Perrysburg soccer back on the map. It’s all because of them — they really worked hard to get there.”
Perrysburg had opportunities Saturday, but the Yellow Jackets were outshot 12-7, including 8-3 in shots on goal. Perrysburg did not have a single shot on net the second half.
However, Jeansonne says this game wasn’t that much different than when the Jackets won, 3-2, in the season opener.
“It was probably the same game — they just finished, and we didn’t,” Jeansonne said. “We had chances to score, we didn’t finish early, and that gave them some momentum coming in here to play us.
“We had the early chances, we had the momentum, we just didn’t put them in the back of the net.”
Midway through the first half, Perrysburg junior forward Alexander Diaz was awarded a penalty kick after a foul in the box following a corner kick.
Diaz’s kick went right, and St. Francis sophomore keeper Ben Baker went left, making a last second dive to get the save. Baker finished with three saves and Revill had six saves.
Perrysburg senior forward Keegan Motter tried to play through an injury but gave up after about 10 minutes. Motter led the team in scoring this year with 41 points on 17 goals and seven assists.
Diaz had 12 goals and four assists, junior midfielder Matthew Zinn had five goals and four assists, and senior midfielder Andrew Mack Jr. had four goals and one assist.
