photo by: Kim North

John Marshall’s Austin Bumgardner (12) follows the ball as Cambridge’s Bryce Hearing pursues during Sunday’s OVAC Senior Showcase boys’ soccer all-star match at Red Devil Stadium in St. Clairsville.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — There were plenty of standout players on the artificial pitch Sunday afternoon at windy and chill-filled Red Devil Stadium in St. Clairsville for the annual OVAC Senior Showcase boys’ soccer all-star match.

Union Local’s Brady Roe turned out to be the hero for the Buckeye State. His goal in the fifth — and final — round of the shootout gave Ohio a cherished and hard-fought, 2-1, victory over West Virginia.

The match was deadlocked at 1 after 80 minutes before the Buckeyes found the net on 4-of-5 penalty kicks to 3-of-5 for the Mountaineers. With each side having three goals in the shootout, Roe stepped up as the last shooter and pounded the ball into the right side of the net as his teammates mobbed him.

“I mostly realized that he (W.Va. goalkeeper Andrew Seigneur) seemed to be a little slow off the jump, so I was mainly looking for a nice place and a fast ball. It ended up working out.

“This is a fantastic way to end my high school career,” Roe added. “This means so much to me to be one of the first players from my high school to play in this game, on this field, and then to be able to score the game-winning goal.”

Also scoring for Ohio in the shootout against Wood County Christian’s Andrew Seigneur were St. Clairsville’s Parker Galloway; Steubenville’s Cole Bowers and Cambridge’s Rylan Matthews. Finding the net against St. Clairsville’s Talan Rice for West Virginia were Linsly’s Agustin Fonseca, Wheeling Park’s Ike Aderholt and Wheeling Central’s Ray Konkoleski.

West Virginia took a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute when Fonseca took a nice feed from Trinity Christian’s Parker Hopkins and beat Rice.

Ohio drew even shortly after as Steubenville Catholic’s Santiago Descalzo sent a blast from the middle of the box on the left wing that somehow found its way past University keeper JR Abraham.

Rice, who was the OVAC Class 4A Player of the Year, made 14 saves in his last ‘home’ game, including a leaping tip of a Hopkins’ shot that appeared headed for the top corner, but sailed just over the cross bar in the 50th minute.

Descalzo was voted Ohio’s Offensive Player of the Match, while Rice earned the Defensive Player of the Match. Fonseca was the W.Va. Offensive Player of the Match and Wheeling Park’s Sam Rockey the Defensive Player of the Match.

Bowers shared the Class 5A Player of the Year award with Wheeling Park’s Wilson Hanna. Wheeling Central goalkeeper Tino Sperlazza was the Class 1A/3A Player of the Year. St. Clairsville’s Jeff Roberts was the boys’ Coach of the Year as the Red Devils reached the Ohio Division IV Regional Tournament before bowing out to defending state champion River View.