West Liberty Soccer Sweeps Rival Wheeling
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WEST LIBERTY -- The West Liberty University soccer teams pulled off a doubleheader-sweep of local rival Wheeling University Wednesday evening, with the women winning 2-0 and the men prevailing 3-1.
Things started off with a bang on the hilltop as West Liberty's Kaelyn Oskin scored just 33 seconds into the first match.
"We scout and look for certain things and we try to give players pictures to look for in the game that we think we'll be able to take advantage of," said West Liberty coach Barry Christmas. "Sometimes it works early in the game and sometimes it's later in the game and this particular time, the players saw a picture that we thought we could take advantage of. And then they executed it."
The Hilltoppers (4-2-1) did an excellent job of keeping the ball on Wheeling's (3-4) half of the field in the first half, out-shooting the Cardinals 5-3 through the first 45 minutes.
Oskin scored another quick goal to start the second half, finding the back of the net in 3:14.
"We made a slight adjustment at half time and we thought they might try and change the shape of their team to try and get back into the game, and they did," Christmas said. "(Oskin is) an experienced player and an intelligent player. She was in the right place at the right time, but there's an art to that too and she's pretty good at that."
Alyssa Rhinaman and Isabella Aperfine picked up assists on Oksin's two goals.
Up 2-0, West Liberty held on in the second half to shutout the visiting Cardinals and secure the win.
"Any conference is nice, but I would be a liar if I said there wasn't a little something extra with the local Wheeling game," Christmas said. "We try to get them to play the game and not get caught up in playing the occasion but there is always a little something extra. These are the games that they'll remember.
"Take nothing away from Wheeling because they didn't give up and they're not going to. They're on a good run of games right now and we're pleased to keep a clean sheet because they've scored a lot of goals recently."
MEN'S SOCCER
Following the women's match, the West Liberty men (4-4) were also able to defeat local rival Wheeling (3-4). Bernardo Vilchis opened the scoring for the Hilltoppers at the 8:26 mark in the first half.
Wheeling's Richard Afolayanka scored an equalizer four minutes later, but WLU retook the lead on a Vitor Otsuka goal prior to halftime. Another Vilchis goal in the second half sealed the win for the Hilltoppers.
The two rivals will rematch in another doubleheader at the end of the regular season on Nov. 6 on Bishop Schmitt Field in Wheeling.