Photo by Mike Hughes Weir’s Catherine Glodowski (12) tries to shield St. C. midfielder Delaney Florence from the ball during Wednesday night’s OVAC Class 4A semifinal at Jimmy Carey Stadium in Weirton. The Red Riders won, 3-0.

WEIRTON–The last time someone other than Oak Glen won the OVAC Girls 4A Championship was the 2016 season.

That team was Weir, which beat the Golden Bears as the No. 4 seed, then took down East Liverpool to win the championship. Since then, Oak Glen has dominated, winning six in a row including a shootout victory against the Red Riders in the 2022 championship.

This year may be different. Courtesy of Weir’s 3-0 victory against No. 4 seeded St. Clairsville on Wednesday at Weirton, the Red Riders get another shot at knocking off the champs.

It’s a feat they accomplished earlier during a regular-season match, 4-3.

Now can the Riders do it when it counts. The Bears did their part, besting Beaver Local 3-1 a few miles north in New Manchester to set the stage for another title-game rematch.

The two rivals will square off Saturday at 10 a.m., the first of three championship games taking place at Wheeling Island Stadium.

To make that possible, Weir needed to defeat St. Clairsville a second time. A few weeks ago, on the same field, the Red Riders scored often in a dominant 6-0 win. It wasn’t nearly as easy this time around and head coach Jeremy Angelo was pleased with his team’s output against a team he felt was ready to play.

“There’s some things we have to clean up, but this team was hungry,” Angelo said of St. C. “They wanted to come out and prove they could play with us and they proved it.

“We did have some opportunities and we need to put those away and finish them. We beat this team 6-0 two weeks ago, but they schemed a little different and made it a little tougher.”

It was the Red Devils playing aggressor early, controlling the midfield and putting a few shots at Weir keeper Reyna Hoover. St. C. made a few lineup changes from the previous meeting, and it paid dividends early.

“We played a lot better than we did last time,” St. Clairsville head coach Wes Stoner said. “We were actually dominating the first few minutes and then they settled and moved the ball the way they can, but still, we defended well.

“We gave up three goals on three one-on-one defensive lapses, but (keeper) Kiya (Kyer) played out of her mind, even while hurt.”

Kyer, playing through a right knee injury, finished with 14 saves including a few brilliant diving stops late in the game. Even with that, Weir managed to push three past her.

The first, and last, came off the foot of junior Jaidyn Kelly. Kelly took the ball on the right side with around 36:26 left, weaved her way toward and in front of the goal, and slipped a shot past Kyer on the left side for a 1-0 score.

Senior Olivia Baker notched the second goal with 11:42 left in the half, and Kelly tacked on the final goal after Kyer made a stop in the second half, but Kelly managed to put the rebound past the freshman.

Next up for St. C. is senior night on Thursday when the Red Devils play host to Cambridge.

Hoover finished with four saves to preserve another shutout and clean sheet for the junior keeper. It also helped secure the 11th win in a row for the Riders.

The number of consecutive wins isn’t important to Angelo. But what is important is how his team is playing.

“I’m not going to complain about scoring three goals and during our last few wins here, it’s been us finding and finish and that makes the game easier,” Angelo said. “When we create opportunities and put them away, it makes everything easier. When we don’t finish, it makes it harder and the other team can get hungry and get the momentum adn then anything can happen.”