Oak Glen Girls’ Soccer Team Returning To State Tourney
Enochs scores both goals, sets school mark
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NEW MANCHESTER -- With his team down a goal at halftime, Ryan Wells had a simple message for his Oak Glen girls' soccer team -- you're not going to lose.
He was right.
Reece Enochs added to her list of school records and accolades with a pair of second-half goals and the Golden Bears came back for a 2-1 victory over North Marion in a Class A/AA Region One final.
"We just calmed them down at halftime," Wells said. "There is no panic in these girls. That, I think, comes from being in these games the last few years. We are eventually going to figure it out, we have done it all year. It's just about believing in one another and our system. It's what we do. Beckley has been in our sights since the beginning of the year.
"I knew at halftime. I told them, 'you are going to win the game.' Because, they want to win a state championship. You could see it in the second half."
The goals were her 106th and 107th of her career, breaking the school record.
"That's 48 goals on the season for her now," Wells said. "We've had teams that man-mark her, double-team her all year. The kid is going to find a way to score. She is a college-level soccer player. She sees the best defenders and athletes on her every night, and she still scores. It's not surprise, it's Reece, it's what she does."
Outside Enochs' goals, the biggest moment for Oak Glen's comeback came in the first 10 seconds of the second half. With the Huskies (14-6) leading 1-0, Aeriss Efawl managed to stay onside and get a point-blank chance. Alexa Andrews, the Oak Glen (17-2-2) keeper, responded with the biggest of her six saves to keep the deficit at one.
Had it gone in, it could have changed everything.
"We were holding the back line and thought she was offside, but she wasn't, she was clearly onside and just stepped up," Wells said of how the play developed. "For a girl that had never touched a soccer ball, she came on late and had to wait and get her 14 practices in, I just think (Andrews) a top-notch keeper off of raw talent right now. It was a huge save. The whole momentum of the game could have changed if that ball goes in."
Instead, Oak Glen got to implement Wells' adjustments and eventually come back.
"We started off, it just wasn't there," he said. "The touches weren't there, things just didn't go our way, and that is a lot of credit to North Marion.
"We played kickball the first half. To get out of that half at 1-nil, we were lucky. We switched from a 3-5-2, to a 4-4-2 and ended up in a 1-4-4-1. It was just about matchups. We talked about certain matchups."
Efawl scored 9:33 into the game to make it 1-0 Huskies, and if not for Andrews, it could have been a larger deficit.
Despite North Marion winning most of the foot races and 50/50 balls, Oak Glen did manage to have some quality looks.
Jory Alexander hit the crossbar, Brooklyn Loveland just missed on a free kick, and Enochs was denied in close.
"We talked about that (at halftime)," Wells said. "We knocked one off the crossbar, we were getting solid looks and shooting it right at the keeper. I told them with as bad as we played in the first half, it still could have been 3-1. It was just a matter of finishing."
When Enochs banked a ball off a North Marion defender and into the net to tie the game 7:18 into the second half, it flipped a switch for the Golden Bears.
From that point, all the 50/50 balls and foot races started going Oak Glen's way.
After Loveland was stopped and Alexander was denied twice, Enochs struck again for what proved to be the game winner. With 23:09 to go, Loveland sent a corner kick into Enochs wheelhouse and she didn't miss for a 2-1 lead.
Oak Glen advances to next week's state tournament in Beckley. The Golden Bears play in the semifinal round at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 9 against Winfield, a 3-0 winner against Williamstown. Bridgeport will take on Charleston Catholic in the other semifinal.