By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
HOLLAND — Bowling Green’s Tomas Meek headed in a corner kick with just under 14 minutes left in regulation to propel the Bobcats to a 1-0 win over Clay in a Division I boys soccer district semifinal at Springfield Community Stadium on Tuesday.
With the victory, Bowling Green (13-5-1) advances to face Toledo St. John’s or Sylvania Northview at noon on Saturday for a trip to regionals.
“It wasn’t pretty, but it doesn’t matter, especially when you get to this point of the season,” Bowling Green coach Josh Fox said. “We’ll take anything. And that’s all we were looking for, just one to advance to the next round.”
The Bobcats threat started with a loose ball in front of the net. Clay was able to knock it out of bounds, but that set up the corner kick. Cole Ash then delivered it from the left to the far right side of the net, which Meek headed in for the eventual game-winning goal.
“I saw the ball coming in, and I was like, ‘Oh shoot, I have to go get this,’” Meek said. “So, I backpedaled and was like, ‘I could probably hit this on the ground and up.’ So, that’s exactly what I did. Headed it down and it worked.”
Meek’s shot came after Clay had dominated possession in the first half. The Eagles produced eight corner kicks to BG’s one in the opening 40 minutes and had many potential opportunities, beginning with a laser shot just eight minutes in that goalkeeper Max Haynes leaped up to punch away.
Nearly five minutes later, Haynes knocked a crossing shot away and the rebounding shot was saved by the BG defense. In fact, Clay had five of their eight corner kicks in the first 15 minutes.
“We have a great stopper in Eli Metzger, and he was shutting them down,” Meek said. “Clay is a very physical team, and they were beating us on physicality, but Eli was there every time.”
Clay (9-9-1) then had multiple chances to take the lead in the final 10 minutes of the half. The first came with just over nine minutes left when the Eagles had a clear shot in front of the net but booted it high.
A corner kick with three minutes didn’t lead to anything, but a yellow card on the Bobcats with seven seconds left stopped the clock and set up a free kick, which was delivered nicely by Clay’s Camden Williams, but the shot sailed just high as time expired.
“(The coaching staff) talked on the sideline about surviving the first half,” Fox said. “We have a really good player back there in Metzger, who is fearless and bails us out a lot. We just kind of hung on until halftime where we could make some adjustments.”
In the second half, the Bobcats did a better job controlling possession, which led to a 4-0 advantage in corner kicks in the final 40 minutes. Things started to turn just over 10 minutes into the half with a BG shot going just high and right of the goal.
Over the next six minutes, Ash had two potential opportunities. The first was a bullet that resulted in a non-goalie save, and the second was deflected and corralled by the keeper.
“Typically, in the first half, we always aim for build-up plays,” Meek said. “In the first half, we were just kicking the ball up. No good team plays like that. In the second half we started building it up more and seeing more chances and that’s what really helped us.”
Clay’s Drake Sekinger, who delivered a pair of dangerous throw-ins with around 20 minutes left, provided the final chance for Clay on another throw-in with four minutes left, but the Bobcats defended it well and eventually picked up the victory.
“They were defending really narrow, clogging up the middle,” Fox said of his team’s second-half adjustments. “We tried to get ourselves in a wider formation, get our guys closer to the touchline and try to find some of those spaces, but to their credit, they defended really well and made it difficult.”
With the victory, the Bobcats improved to 3-0 against Clay this year, and Fox felt that playing a common opponent as well as competing on the road after five straight at home led to his team taking some time to adjust against Clay.
“Coming to a new venue, new surface kind of affected us,” he said. “We had a real tough match on Saturday, too, so I think it kind of took us a second to find our legs and get going.”
Meek hopes this win gives his team confidence going into Saturday’s championship match.
“We came in excited, but just a little nervous,” he said. “Tonight, I feel like we kind of chilled our nerves. Hopefully we can do the same Saturday.”
