BELLVILLE — For the fifth straight year, Lexington hoisted the district championship trophy.
Junior midfielder Zach Turlo made sure of it.
Turlo broke a scoreless tie midway through the second half as the top-seeded Minutemen knocked off No. 2 Ontario 2-0 in a Division II district final match Thursday at the Colt Corral.
Lexington (15-4-1) will play Lima Shawnee in the Sweet 16 at 5 p.m. Nov. 2 at Lima Senior. Shawnee beat St. Marys Memorial 5-1 in Thursday’s Elida district final.
The match was scoreless into the 57th minute when the Minutemen struck. Jack Hiebel sent a low liner into the box on a corner kick that pinballed off Lex’s Dylan George and wound up at the foot of Turlo, who promptly left-footed a shot past a diving Ontario keeper, Omar Abdelaziz, for a 1-0 lead with 23:52 remaining in the second half.
“I knew it was going to be a low driven ball and I just kind of waited and it popped out to me,” Turlo said. “I was able to put it bottom corner when it popped back to me.”
The Minutemen added an insurance goal when Luke Roberts found the right foot of Dylan George, who knocked a shot between the posts with 7:52 remaining.
“For him to come out tonight and put that second one in, it was not only huge for him. It was huge for us,” Lexington coach Peter Them said. “It was just a big goal at a big time.”
The 2-0 deficit was too much to overcome as the Warriors (12-8-1) were forced to play a man down for most of the second half. Defender Will Saltzgiver was sent off after picking up a second yellow card with 34:12 to play.
Midfielder Brandon Litteral was shown a second yellow with 4:39 remaining, forcing Ontario to play two men down.
“It opened up some lanes for us and we were able to move the ball and do some things,” Them said. “Tactically for them … you’ve got to get forward, especially if you’re missing that other guy in the middle.”
The shutout was the ninth of the season for the Minutemen.
“We knew they had fast players in Zain (Fulmer) and Gage (Weaver),” Lex defender Terrance Corbin said. “We just tried to contain them and make sure they didn’t get runs in behind us. We just tried to keep them in front of us.”
Ontario will lose eight seniors to graduation. The Warriors won the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference crown and reached the district title game for a third consecutive year.
“It was a great season. It’s just a little bittersweet,” Ontario coach Chris McClenathan said. “Most of those (seniors) have played in this game three years in a row now. They’ve put a lot into it. They’ve carried the tradition on and stepped it up a little bit. I just feel bad for them.”
