Wheeling Central Boys Stay Unbeaten
Prager, Nestor each tally hat tricks as Knights roll
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WHEELING - Coming off a 1-1 deadlock to a quality, once-beaten, Charleston Catholic team on Saturday, Wheeling Central's unbeaten boys' soccer squad was looking to get out of the gates quickly Tuesday night against visiting Caldwell.
And with Seniors Austin Nestor and Ryan Prager each finding the back of the net within the initial four minutes of play that is exactly what the Maroon Knights did.
Nestor and Prager each tallied a pair of first half goals, combining for seven in all with each getting the hat-trick, and Wheeling Central took the early lead and never took its foot off the gas in rolling to a convincing 10-0 verdict over the Redskins at their 16th Street complex.
Coach Brian Komorowski's squad improves to 5-0-2 on the campaign and will take a short break before returning to action next Tuesday at Tyler Consolidated.
"We have been playing very well, but we need to continue that to get to our end goal," Komorowski admitted. "Most of these guys have been to the regional twice now, but we have not been able to take the next step and that is what we are going to continue to work towards this season, taking the next step."
The first steps towards victory came quickly last night with Nestor's one-hopper off of a throw-in from 25 yards out getting the scoring started just 1:41 into the contest. Prager made it 2-0 at the 3:59 mark when he took a pass deep in the box from sophomore Aiden Lucas and watched his roller make its way past Caldwell keeper Mack Clark.
It remained that way until the midway point of the first half when Prager's blast from 10 yards away at 22:53 pushed the margin to 3-0. The final goal of the opening 40 minutes came with 2:19 showing when Nestor's laser from inside the box ricocheted off the post and past Clark for a 4-0 score.
Nestor's hat-trick came at the 3:04 mark of the second when he nudged a shot past Clark off of a long pass to make it 5-0. Any hopes the Redskins may have had came to an end in the ensuing five minutes as the Maroon Knights added three more goals to extend the margin to 8-0. Nestor's fourth goal got things started at the 10-minute mark with senior Nathan Stryker scoring three minutes later off of a steal. Prager's hat-trick followed a couple minutes later from 10 yards away.
Sophomore Luke Minor added a late goal before senior Kelly Reidel closed the onslaught with a corner kick that bounced off of Clark and into net with just 25 seconds remaining.
In all Wheeling Central out-shot Caldwell by a whopping 17-1 margin, with the Redskins' lone attempt coming midway through the first half.
"We really wanted to come out and play well and a hard game Saturday against Charleston Catholic," Komorowski added. "Building off of that game was a big key for us.
"Something that we have been pushing for is to move the ball around a lot and try and get everyone involved in passing and we did a good job of that (Tuesday). Nestor really had a great game for us in limited minutes and Prager, as he usually does, went out and did everything we asked of him.
"While our defense doesn't really have a lot of games played, they are a veteran group in age, and they are playing well and getting to where we need them to be. It was also nice to get the younger guys some playing time and let them go out and prove that the work they have been putting in is also paying off."