photo by: Nick Henthorn

Photo by Nick Henthorn From left, Wheeling Park’s Corin McFarland, Julia Dunaway, Hailey Hastings and Lakin Chambers, pictured celebrating a Dunaway goal Saturday against Preston during the Patriots’ playoff game inside Wheeling Island Stadium.

WHEELING — It’s a whole new season for the Wheeling Park Patriots now, as the top seed in W.Va. girls soccer’s Class AAAA North Region, and Park started strong Saturday inside Wheeling Island Stadium with an 8-0 showing against No. 8 Preston.

With the breezy victory, Park will face the winner of No. 4 University vs. No. 5 Jefferson on Thursday, Oct. 30 with a trip to the state championships on the line. The state semifinals and championship games will be held Nov. 5-8 in Beckley.

“The result, obviously, was what we were hoping for. The best part of the game was probably the way we came out with a lot of intensity, and the desire to win was the most important thing,” Wheeling Park head coach Tom Smith said. “We came out with a lot of pace.”

The Patriots did not take long to leap in front Saturday. Molly Bradshaw scored in the third minute, Julia Dunaway followed with scored in the fourth and fifth minutes, and before anyone had even broken a sweat, Wheeling Park was looking at a 3-0 lead.

Maggie Miller was next to get in on the action for Park, and Corin McFarland scored on a sharp header in the 25th minute to build a 5-0 lead.

Dunaway tallied two more goals before halftime as the Patriots led 7-0 at the break.

Bradshaw notched the lone goal of the second half with a sharp-angle shot in the 62nd minute as Wheeling Park subbed in a lot of different players throughout the final 40.

Smith was happy with how he saw his team preparing for Saturday.

“Soccer is an emotional game,” Smith said. “You have to keep yourself in the right frame of mind. And the pace is the most important thing that we’re working on right now, as far as us dictating the play to the other team rather than them dictating it to us. The more we can take advantage in the early parts of the game, the better off we’ll be.”