Oak Glen Falls Short in Semis
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BECKLEY -- Against all odds, Oak Glen's girls' soccer team marched its way to the West Virginia Class AA State Tournament, despite many key losses from last year's graduating class.
That magical run came to an end on Friday at the hands of Charleston Catholic by a count of 4-1 in the state semifinals at Carter Family Foundation Field.
"We definitely weren't supposed to be here this year," Oak Glen coach Ryan Wells said. "The girls heard that and I think it ticked them off a little bit so we set our goals high but with what we lost -- I mean last year we lost three girls who went from playing for us to starting in college right now. We had some girls step up. When you have a goal scorer like Kami (Ward) and a goalkeeper like Alexis Greenlief and a back line that is tough like that -- we did pretty well. I know these seniors wanted to get back here and it was a great experience and I'm proud of them."
The game started off fast for Charleston Catholic as Shannon Karr scored in the game's first moments but Oak Glen didn't quit and showed fight as Ward also found the back of the net for the Golden Bears.
Unfortunately for Oak Glen, the Irish had too much fire power. Claire Mullen delivered on two shots and Karr added another netter in the second half to put the game out of reach.
"They are a young team," Wells said of Charleston Catholic. "We played them the first game of the year but they have grown. Watching them from the first game until now, they don't even look like the same kids. Coach Amy Mullen does a great job. Charleston Catholic is one of the best teams in the state every year because of Amy. We've been eliminated by Charleston Catholic three times now. But I love the way we responded after that first early goal."
Greenlief had 13 saves for Oak Glen, while Katherine Skinner only needed one to earn the win.
"We have one more hump to get over," Coach Mullen said. "I like that we can score in the first five minutes but we got too comfortable and let them score. They have a couple of players that scared us to death. We had to drop another girl but I think that we just had to get rid of the nerves."