Lakeland Christian boys soccer began their playoff run Monday evening at Argos High School, taking on Caston in the first round of the 1A bracket. The match was dominated by the Cougars from the opening whistle onward, as the team advanced to the semifinals with a 7-0 win.
Just three minutes into the match, LCA had its first serious chance on goal. After a long spell of possession put Caston on their toes, the home team on the scoreboard came very close to scoring the opener as a cross by Jashawn Zielasko was redirected just over the crossbar and out of play.
A minute afterwards, the first save of the game for Caston resulted in a corner kick, as well as a second one immediately afterwards. Five minutes into the match, it would yield results, as the perfectly placed boot by Zaiden Miller found the foot of defender Jayce Dixon, who buried it into the back of the net to put the Cougars on top.
Twelve minutes into the half, after some more dominant possession by the Cougars, the Comets finally had their first big opportunity in the game. It was a breakaway for the visitors, and the first real test of the game for keeper Braden Weirick. He was up for the challenge, making a nice kick save to keep his team on top.
As the midway point in the first half neared closer, both sides experienced their ups and downs, with each team putting together a few chances. Neither side was able to get onto the scoreboard, but the pace was frantic, with players having to run from one end of the field to the other in quick succession to keep up with the ball.
Finally, with just under 21 minutes to play in the first half, the Cougars doubled their advantage. Zielasko, the team’s leading scorer, was the one to add the goal on a great run to the net. Just two minutes later, he did it again. Beating a series of defenders, Zielasko unleashed a long looping shot that looked more like a cross than a shot, but it found the back of the net anyways to make it a 3-0 game.

    LCA junior Jashawn Zielasko speeds past Caston's Myles Sherrick en route to scoring his second goal of Monday night's sectional game at Argos...Nieter

The scoring didn’t stop there. With eight minutes remaining in the half, a picture-perfect throw in by Aaron Gause put the ball in the box, and after bouncing off the keeper’s hands, it was met with the right foot of Ben Turek, who made it a 4-0 game.
Despite more than a few chances for LCA to extend the lead further, it stayed that way going into halftime.
It didn’t take long into the second half for the Cougars to extend their lead, as just two and a half minutes in, Dixon scored his second goal of the match to make it 5-0. Five minutes after that, Jay Kwon connected with Aiden Yoder just outside the box, with Yoder taking the shot. It was initially stopped, but bounced up and over the keeper’s hands to make it 6-0 not even ten minutes into the second.
It didn’t stop there. At the 29 minute mark, Zaiden Miller got in on the fun, weaving through a series of defenders before finally beating the keeper to extend the LCA lead to seven.
By this point, most of the starters had been taken out of the game for LCA, but they kept the pressure on as they continued to dominate possession. The starters were brought in late in the game to try and shut the door, but were unable to score any more in the contest.
Lakeland Christian (12-4) will take on Winamac in the semifinal round Wednesday at 5 p.m.