Wheeling Central’s Rylee Wright gathers the ball Wednesday during the Maroon Knights’ WVSSAC Class AA-A girls soccer semifinal vs. James Monroe.

BECKLEY — It was an auspicious start for the Wheeling Central Maroon Knights on Wednesday in their WVSSAC Class A-AA semifinal game, the top-seeded Knights blowing out No. 4 James Monroe via a 10-0 mercy rule win which sent Central to Friday’s state championship game with time to spare.

Elah Konkle blasted through the final two goals of the game for Central, putting the Knights up 9-0 in the 47th minute and then ending the game with a goal in the 53rd minute against the Mavericks.

An early finish was made possible by a fast start for Central. Rylee Wright scored shortly after the game began, and Loni Kusic notched another goal in the sixth minute. Wright scored again in the 10th minute and notched a hat trick with another score in the 14th minute. Before some fans had gotten back from getting their popcorn, it was 4-0 Wheeling Central.

“James Monroe, they had a really good season coming in,” Wheeling Central head coach Bill Konkle said. “We knew they had a fast forward.

“So we were trying to contain her, and we wanted to start out fast, and we were able to score a couple goals early. I think that just kind of helped us get rid of some of that nervous energy, and we just kind of started rolling after that.”

Seneca Heller assisted on the latter three goals, but the senior took the next score for herself, assisted by Loni Kusic for a 15th minute goal.

Mariah Ratcliffe scored in the 22nd minute, assisted by Konkle. Mariah Ratcliffe was next in-line to score for the Knights, in the 23rd minute on a left-footed shot.

Aylin Yoho put Wheeling Central up 8-0 at halftime with a goal in the 28th minute.

When interviewed, the opposite semifinal in Class AA-A between No. 2 Lincoln and No. 3 Sissonville had not yet concluded, but Wheeling Central is aiming to be ready for anything.

“We’ll have a practice tomorrow,” Konkle said. “We’re kind of waiting to see how the outcome of the next game goes between Lincoln and Sissonville. So then we can kind of determine how we’re gonna plan that practice and just kind of keep them, you know, level-headed and stick to our basic routine and our practices and just try to stay as focused as possible.”

Just last week, Wheeling Central was celebrating making it to the state tournament for the first time in school history. Now, the Maroon Knights are one win away from a championship.

“I think probably everybody, when you get to this point, you kind of look at the final four, and you plan,” Konkle said. “You practice, obviously, for the first game, but then you also use some of your practices to practice on some of the things that you might see from the other teams if you get to the championship situation. With our almost full week of practice, you’re kind of really planning for one team, but you’re also planning for the other two teams that you could face as well later in the tournament.”

The championship game Friday is set for 1 p.m. inside YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Sports Complex.