Confidence builder: Ontario shuts out Madison in Richland County boys soccer clash

MADISON TOWNSHIP — Ontario boys soccer coach Chris McClenathan has been waiting for a performance like his team put on Thursday night.

He wanted one that looked clean in every phase of the game, and his Warriors gave it to him with a 4-0 win over much-improved Madison.

The Warriors built a 2-0 halftime lead and showed consistency with two more goals in the second half as four different players scored to give them the offensive balance they have been looking for since game one. After James Stewart rocketed a free kick to the bottom left corner of the goal for the opening score with 15:30 left in the first half, Austin Boughton sent a spinning kick into the box that caught the leg of a Madison defender and diverted the direction enough to find the back of the net with 6:49 left in the opening half.

Stewart's goal set the tone for the night and the Warriors used the momentum from the goal to cruise to the nonconference win.

"The wall was over a bit too far with two guys on the right side of the post, so it left a pretty clear shot on the left side so I just kind of hit it full strength and found the bottom corner," Stewart said. "It is always nice to get the first goal because it sets the tone of the game, and we just built on that from there."

Gage Weaver scored with 23:45 left in the match to make it 3-0 when Stewart threw in a long throw that found Weaver's chest. He carefully gathered the pass, popped the ball down to his feet and took a powerful swing to send it in for the third goal of the night. Jace Young added the final goal to make it 4-0 with 10:42 left to put the game on ice.

It was a confidence-building win over a Rams team seeking its 10th win of the season, which Madison hasn't done since 2019. The Rams (9-5-1) had only been shut out once in their previous 14 games before the Warriors kept them from sending a ball to the back of the net Thursday night.

"Tonight, defensively, we played spectacular," McClenathan said. "In all phases of the game, we were very good tonight, and even when we put our subs in there wasn't a drop in the level of play out there. It was a complete game, and we put it together at the perfect time. Hopefully, we can carry it on the next two weeks."

Stewart, who spent just as much time on defense as he did on the offensive side of the pitch, said the shutout is a huge momentum boost for his team.

"They are a very solid team and this is one of our first very good shutouts of the year," he said of the Rams. "They have a couple of very good young guys up top that know how to play the game, so it is nice to put up a clean sheet so we will keep pushing forward."

It was the perfect time to put up their most complete game of the year with the tournament seeding and draw on Sunday.

"We played two full halves, an entire 80 minutes, so it certainly was our most complete game of the year," McClenathan said. "The free kick was phenomenal and Gage Weaver's goal down on our end was a great goal to take it down and hit it. It was just a quality win tonight."

Despite not scoring, the Rams made things difficult all night for the Warriors and definitely had their chances to score, but the ball wouldn't bounce their way. That included a header that seemed to cross the line but had enough backspin on it to make it take a weird bounce back into the field of play before it could counted as an obvious goal.

"I felt like we moved the ball very well against them and gave ourselves some chances, but we just couldn't put them in," Madison coach Tim Lord said. "Then, when they had chances, they executed and made the most of their opportunities. That is soccer. When you give up one or two goals, you fall behind it. I was OK with how we played overall, but there were just a few mistakes."

After going down 2-0, the Rams changed up their formation to give themselves more offensive opportunities, which opened things up for the Warriors on their offensive end of the pitch.

"We moved a defender out so we could take a little more chances offensively," Lord said. "We had to take our chances, and we had some, but just couldn't put one in. They are a great team with a good keeper and it just wasn't our night."

Lord has noticed a dramatic improvement in his team since the season began. The Rams have two more chances to pick up their 10th win of the season with Willard and Mansfield Christian left on the schedule. If they can earn one more win, they will have collected more victories this season than they have in the last two years combined. They are already tied at nine.

"It is very noticeable," Lord said. "This team moves the ball as well as any team I have coached since I took over. It is encouraging because a lot of the same guys we had last year when we struggled are doing it as a core this year. When we add Randy Jamieson and Joey Walker up top, it gives us people to play to and it in turn opens up the defense so we can play a little bit outside."

Ontario (8-6-1), which hosts Lutheran West on Tuesday and Lima Shawnee on Oct. 15, needed a resume-building win and got it against Madison, a Division I team. McClenathan sees the victory as a potential start to something special.

"I think this game will go a long way for the rest of the season," he said. "This tells us we can come out against a quality team and put together a win. They put a ton of pressure on us in the first 10 minutes of each half and we persevered through that. The boys will take this win, be very happy with it and use it as momentum moving forward."

jfurr@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Ontario beats Madison in high school boys soccer