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Tejkl, Gerken lift Napoleon to shutout victory over Bryan

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By JASON STEIN

cnsports@crescent-news.com">cnsports@crescent-news.com

No one can questions the heart and determination that Bryan and Napoleon showed in Thursday's Division II sectional final at Defiance High School.

And while the Bryan Golden Bears (11-4-4) created a plethora of second half scoring chances, a Cole Gerken goal and the Brody Tejkl wall in net proved to be the difference as the Wildcats (12-3-4) earned a 1-0 shutout victory.

With the win, the Wildcats advance to the district final against Lima Shawnee (13-4-2), a 2-0 victor over Wapakoneta, which will be played at Wapakoneta High School at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Gerken was the only player for either team to find the back of the net, for a goal that counted, when the Napoleon back line kept play in the Bryan half of the field.

“Like always, the offense always starts from the back,” began the Napoleon sniper. “We just played it perfectly, 1-2 to each other and it played out perfectly to score.”

After the ball bounced around briefly, Gerken collected it, and started across the field around top of the 18-yard box, and after creating his own space with some quick footwork, turned and quickly fired a shot to the lower left corner of the net to put Napoleon up 1-0 with 20:57 showing on the clock.

“Cole is so dangerous in the open field and he just takes one move and he gets himself set,” quipped Napoleon head coach Chris DelFavero. “He has a great shot and he just placed it right where he needed to. We talked about our shots need to be low and to the corner and that's exactly what he did.”

While Gerken's goal was certainly needed for the Wildcats to come out on top, it was the play of Tejkl in net that prevented Napoleon from falling behind to an aggressive Bryan attack.

“Brody's an outstanding goalkeeper, he really played well,” commented DelFavero, who credited his keeper's work ethic. “When you're a goalkeeper and you're in the zone and you feel it, and he was feeling it today and he played really well, without his goalkeeping, they would have certainly put a couple in.”

A little over 19 minutes into the first half, Tejkl made an outstanding diving save to his right on a shot by one of Bryan's dangerous scorers, Peter Thongpasouk and then stayed focused to the very last minute of the half when he picked up a shot from Braxton Snavely.

“The field is really rough out there and it's hard to get grip with your shoes, so I just did the best I could,” remarked Tejkl, who made a dozen saves in the contest. “I made a couple big saves in the first half and then in the second half the field was worse so I couldn't get any grip at all, and I had a couple saves to make again then.”

In the first 11 minutes of the second half, Bryan came out firing.

Snavely sent a crossing pass toward the Napoleon net, from Tejkl's left side which created one scoring shot, after an initial save, Caleb Walkowski drilled a shot which went off the goalpost before the Napoleon keeper made a save on a third Bryan shot.

“Sometimes you just feel it,” said Tejkl. “You just feel that you're going to make the save, be confident. You always have to be confident but this game was extra special, you had to be extra confident to come up with the win.

Moment's later, Thongpasouk forced Tejkl to make a save on a shot from his left side and then had the wherewithal to recover and make a save on a shot from his right, this one off foot of Walkowski.

Thongpasouk then followed that up with an opportunity for a goal which he sent sailing up and over the net.

“When you're a good team and you're playing good teams, this happens week in, week out,” remarked Bryan head coach, Martin Collins. “But at tournament time, those little chances you can have and you don't finish them off perfectly, they count just that bit more and they hurt that bit more when it goes against you. We created three or four opportunities early in the second half, if one or two of those got in, I don't think we would have lost this game.

Continued the classy Bryan coach, whose team put five more shots on goal than Napoleon and had several other near misses. “Our determination, we were winning the ball in the middle, it was just one of those occasions. I can't complain, we created the chances, didn't fall for us tonight and good luck to Napoleon, go ahead and go as far as you can guys.”

Even after Napoleon scored, Bryan never gave up and never lost its composure as the Golden Bears continued to press in the attempt to knot the game but with a couple header attempts coming up short and an absolute laser from Austin Weigle drilling off the top post with 10 minutes left, and of course a few more saves from the aggressive Napoleon goalie, time was running out.

Finally, at the 1:35 mark, the Golden Bears thought they had broken through only to have a goal from Thongpasouk, on a set up from Snavely, immediately called off as the play was said to have been offsides.

The Bears continued to play hard in the short time remaining, but came up short despite their fine efforts.

“Very tight,” Collins said of the closeness of his squad. “It's difficult to point anybody out because they're a true team. They've been true to the word 'family' and true to the word 'team'. All the seniors have been superb, but their character this season has just pulled everybody along with them and just about everybody stepped up. We've got a team of 21 players, all of different classes, but the truth of the matter is you felt like it was a team of 21 seniors in heart and spirit and fight and you could see at the end, we weren't giving up any game. The character of these boys is beyond question.”

And for the 'Cats, on to the district final and a rematch with Shawnee, who beat Napoleon 2-0 in last year's district final.

Napoleon 1, Bryan 0

Napoleon (12-3-4) - Goal: Cole Gerken. Shots: 10. Shots on goal: 6 (Gerken 5). Saves: Brody Tejkl 12. Bryan (11-4-4) – Shots: 17. Shots on goal: 12 (Peter Thongpasouk 3, Caleb Walkowski 3, Braxton Snavely 3). Saves: Zack Ridgway 5.