Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

The Division 3 tournament trail was up and then down for the St. Joseph Flyers.

St. Joseph opened sectional tournament play with an 8-0 whitewash of the West Union Dragons on Tuesday only to fall 4-2 in the sectional finals at South Webster as the Jeeps took a 4-2 decision.

In the win over the Dragons, the Flyers Elijah Rowe recorded a glut as he scored 5 goals while Wesley Neal notched the other goal.

Zachary Johnson had 3 assists while Brady Medinger had 2 assists.

Goalkeeper Eli Ford got the shutout as he had 4 saves.

The Flyers took 43 shots with 26 on goal. They had 8 corner kicks, 10 fouls and 2 offside penalties.

West Union was limited to 7 shots with 4 on goal. They had 3 fouls, one corner kick and 2 offside penalties.

Goalkeeper Abby Gillespie had 22 saves.

But things turned the other way on Thursday as the Flyers found the offense hard to generate against the Jeeps.

Johnson scored an unassisted goal at the 10:44 mark of the first half and the Flyers took their only lead of the game.

Trae Zimmerman and Connor Bender took over at that point as they combined on all 4 South Webster goals.

Zimmerman had an unassisted goal at 16:08 to tie the game, then had an assist as Bender scored with 33:53 on the first half clock and it was 2-1.

Bender scored with an assist from Zimmerman at 49:54 of the second half and it was 3-1.

The Flyers got a team goal 8 minutes later to make it 4-2, but Bender used an assist from Zimmerman to find the back of the net with 58:39 on the clock and set the final score

St. Joseph had only 5 shots and they were all on goal. Ford had 8 saves.

The Jeeps took 20 shots with 12 on goal. Keeper Jaren Lower had 3 saves.

St. Joseph finishes the season 12-6 and was second in the Southern Ohio Conference Division 1 with a 6-2 record

South Webster is now 9-7-2 and faces conference foe Minford on Tuesday in the district semifinals.

Thursday’s Game

St. Joseph 1 1 = 2

South Webster 2 2 = 4

First Half

SJ – Zachary Johnson (unassisted) 10:44

SW – Trae Zimmerman (unassisted) 16:08

SW – Connor Bender (assist Trae Zimmerman) 33:53

Second Half

SW – Connor Bender (assist Trae Zimmerman) 49:54

SJ – Team goal 57:51

SW – Connor Bender (assist Trae Zimmerman) 58:39

Game Statistics

Shots –– St. Joseph 5, South Webster 20

Shots on goal – St. Joseph 5, South Webster 12

Goalkeeper saves – St. Joseph: Eli Ford 8; South Webster: Jaren Lower 3

Corner kicks – St. Joseph 0, South Webster 10

Fouls – St. Joseph 9, South Webster 4. Offside – St. Joseph 0, South Webster 1