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St. Clairsville Girls Claim First Buckeye 8 Title

Otto scores lone goal to beat Beaver Local before leaving with injury

Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville’s Jolie Nardo defends against Beaver Local’s Danica Taylor during Tuesday’s Buckeye 8 championship game at Red Devil Stadium.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — St. Clairsville has always had a pretty good girls’ soccer program. However, as good as it has been, a Buckeye 8 championship trophy wasn’t on the resume.

That all changed Tuesday night when the Red Devils (7-2) blanked visiting Beaver Local, 1-0, on the pitch inside Red Devil Stadium. The Beavers (6-4) had won the title the past three years, including a 3-2 nod over St. Clairsville last year in Lisbon.

“You can’t be more proud of a group of girls than I am of this group,” St. Clairsville coach Wes Stoner said as his eyes welled up with emotions. “They worked their butts off to be in this position. We were in this position last year and didn’t come through, but this year we did it, defensively, too.”

The victory celebration was subdued a little as senior standout Alyssa Otto went down in a heap after colliding with a Beaver Local player late in the 79th minute. She was helped off the field in obvious pain and sat with an icebag on her right knee after the roughly played match.

“I have no clue,” Stoner said when asked about the severity of Otto’s injury. “It’s still way too early and I’m not about to speculate on anything.” Beaver Local’s Riley Britt was assessed a yellow card on the play.

Jaeda Nowak played the game of her life. The Red Devils sophomore goalkeeper continually came up with big save after big save to keep the Beavers off the scoreboard. She finished with 17 saves.

“She is a big part of our defense. She made a lot of great saves and was in really good position the entire game,” Stoner said. “She’s really talented. She really doesn’t get much credit, but when I talk about our defense, I’m talking about her, as well.”

Nowak started the season splitting duties with Anna Woollard, who suffered another knee injury. The shutout was Nowak’s second by herself and fifth overall.

“It was such a really good game,” Nowak said. “I was really impressed with how we played. I’m very proud of the defense in front of me.”

With Nowak keeping the ball out of her net, it only took one goal to win it.

That gamer-winner came off the right foot of Otto in the 11th minute. Sophomore Macy Malin sent a nifty feed between the legs of a Beaver Local player that the Mercyhurst University recruit ran down before dodging another defender. The shot sailed into the left corner of the cage for her 126th career tally.

Beaver Local had several golden scoring opportunities, none better than in the 16th minute when an initial Beavers shot was blocked by St. Clairsville defender Jolie Nardo. The rebound went to Nowak’s right but the Beaver Local player couldn’t get a clean shot off.

The Beavers also threatened late in the first half when Jenna Riccardo sent a direct kick toward the net that bounced in front of Nowak and trickled just over the crossbar.

Jackie Francis stopped nine shots for Beaver Local.

“We knew coming in that Alyssa Otto was their main threat. She was able to get by us a couple of times and put one in the net early in the game,” Beaver Local coach Elizabeth Connor said. “My team worked hard to get back in the game. We just couldn’t find the final pass.

“Their goalkeeper definitely stepped up this game. We need to do a better job of finding the ball before it gets to the keeper.”

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