University Downs Wheeling Park Girls
WELLSBURG — University kept attacking. Wheeling Park kept trying to clear the ball out of its zone. The only person in Brooke Memorial Stadium that saw the ball cross the goal line was the linesman.
He was the only one that needed to.
And with that, by the slimmest of margins, the University girls’ soccer team earned a 1-0 victory Thursday to win the Class AAA Region One championship and a spot in next week’s W.Va. State Soccer Tournament in Beckley.
“They have been fighting really hard this season and have a goal in mind to take it one game at a time, but this is a pretty big game to win,” University coach Kat Devlin said. “This means a lot to them.”
Their regular-season match ended in a 0-0 tie and their OVAC semifinal went into penalty kicks before University won. This was much of the same between the evenly matched teams.
After 66 minutes of play without a score, University (18-1-4) finally dented the scoreboard.
A corner kick by Leah Marsh came to Braden Pickett, whose shot was saved by Wheeling Park goalie Deanna Crum. The rebound went to Ari Christiansen. Her shot was deflected away by a Wheeling Park defender to Emma Sizer, who was able to get the ball past Crumm.
Crumm gathered the ball and started to move Wheeling Park back up the field. Both teams acted as nothing happened as the linesman furiously waved his flag to signal the ball had crossed the line.
“I trust my girls and they said it was in, so I believe it was in,” Devlin said. “My girls believe they are a second-half team and that is when they get amped up. Once we got to half, I felt safer and that we could pull this off. Hats off to Wheeling Park. They fight each time and to come out of this game with a win is a good feeling.”
Wheeling Park coach Carrie Hanna talked to the linesman — who was on the opposite side of the field from the benches — after the game to get clerification on the goal.
“The official said it was in,” Hanna said. “It was difficult because we cleared and everyone was playing. It seemed like it wasn’t a goal and that our girls won the battle and got it out of there.
“But that is part of the game. The official said it was in so it was a goal that stood.”
While the Patriots (13-4-4) had possession for much of the game, their inability to get off many shots played a big part in the outcome. The Hawks outshot them, 9-2.
“We had a lot of possession and University, to their credit, played tremendous defense,” Hanna said. “It is very difficult to break them down. I wish we could have had some more outside shots, but we just didn’t take those. We didn’t take our half-chances and I think that ended up costing us.”
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