St. Clairsville Girls Score Early, Hold Off Steubenville Catholic
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -St. Clairsville scored three goals within a five-minute span near the end of the first half during ‘Friday Night Futbol,’ and the Red Devils made them stand up despite a furious rally by visiting Steubenville Catholic.
The Red Devils watched the Crusaders pull to within 3-2 on back-to-back tallies in the 67th and 70th minutes, but freshman Felicity Morgan's first career goal put the capper on a 4-2 season-opening victory in girls' high school soccer action on the artificial pitch at Red Devil Stadium.
"There were a lot of nerves and a lot of adrenaline flowing for the first 25-30 minutes, which is understandable with us starting four freshmen," St. Clairsville head coach Wes Stoner said. "That will happen."
St. Clairsville had numerous scoring opportunities early on, but couldn't solve Steubenville Catholic goalkeeper Adalee Long.
Freshman Molly Schultz carried the ball deep on the right wing before sending a perfect cross to Elizabeth Morgan in front of the net and the junior made it 1-0 in the 31st minute.
Two minutes later, Emma Gasber streaked down the middle of the field on a breakaway, only to have Long charge out and deny the initial shot. However, Gasber kept going and banged the rebound into the empty net for a 2-0 advantage.
Gasber then set up Kaylee Shafer who blasted the ball into the net.
"As soon as we got the first goal, you could kind of feel the exhale, and we relaxed a little and got two more quick ones," Stoner recalled.
"We lost our concentration from the 8-minute mark to the 3-minute mark. We made some bad decisions and St. Clairsville capitalized on them like good teams do," Steubenville Catholic head coach Jonathan Hoover said. "I think we recovered well and made the necessary adjustments for the second half."
Both goalkeepers - Long and St. Clairsville's Kiya Kyer - came up with big saves early in the second half. It was only the second shot that Kyer had faced all night. She finished with two saves on four shots.
Goals by Aurelia Hoover and Zelie Baillargeon cut the deficit to 3-2, but Felicity Morgan nudged a loose ball from in front of the net amidst a scrum of players that trickled across the goal line and into the net in the 72nd minute.
"Maybe we got too relaxed because we didn't come out with the same aggression in the second half and got outplayed. I didn't think we played very well," Stoner noted. "We lost a lot of things we were doing right in the first half, but you'll have that in a season-opener. There are a lot of things that we need to work on, but a win is a win."
"We played really well in the second half and we played more physical, which is something that we lacked in the first half," Hoover added. "If you look at it, we won the second half 2-1 but, unfortunately, they had three goals to start the game.
Long, who finished with nine saves, had another breakaway stop on Gasber in the waning moments.
"She stopped three breakaways. She gave one up in the first half and I told her, if you see your defense get beat, then just go for it (the ball)," Hoover explained. "It really worked out. I knew she could do it."
St. Clairsville is at home next Thursday when Weir visits.