Photo by Mike Hughes St. Clairsville’s Parker Galloway and Cambridge’s Aidan Castello fight for the ball during the sectional contest Monday at Red Devil Stadium.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE –Through 80 minutes Cambridge and St. Clairsville waged a spirited battle on the pitch at Red Devils Stadium.

A spot in the next round of the Ohio Boys’ Division II soccer tournament on the line, The Bobcats played well above their expected level given the team’s 5-12-1 record.

While the 10-6 Red Devils struck first, the Bobcats answered soon after in the first half and the two clubs battled to a 1-1 tie during regulation.

Less than three minutes into overtime, St. C. single-season scoring leader Parker Galloway put away the game, and the Bobcats, on a controversial free kick that pushed St. C. to Wednesday’s match up with John Glenn at New Concord.

Cambridge head coach J.R. Fox took major exception with the call. The whistle came on a challenge from senior Markel Villapalos on Galloway. A natural defender, Fox said Villapalos became visibly upset at the call because he primarily plays defense in his native Spain and that challenge is one he’s made 100 times without issue.

“My kids played 110 percent and they did exactly what they were supposed to do all night long and I thought we did a good job of handling that kid,” Fox said of Galloway.

“The kids performed exactly how we felt we could all year. Sometimes we got excellent play and other times, it wasn’t so good and that’s just kind of the way it goes.

“But (Monday), they were excellent.”

The foul was whistled outside the penalty box, so St. C. wasn’t awarded a penalty kick, but it was close enough for a dangerous opportunity.

Carson Hendershot and Galloway talked it over, and the two opted to give Galloway the attempt instead of Hendershot, who normally handles free kicks.

Galloway went low and to the right past the hands of Cambridge keeper Rylan Matthews, who turned away 13 shots during the game with a number of brilliant stops.

“Parker was wanting that (kick),” St. Clairsville head coach Jeff Roberts said. “He felt he got fouled a few times and he and Carson talked about the free kick and he took it and buried it.

“He was feeling it and sometimes you have to trust the players that they know what to do.”

Matthews robbed Galloway on a few occasions Monday, particularly in the second half.

With less than 11 minutes left in regulation, senior Christ Schmidt attempted a corner kick from the left side that a Cambridge defender headed away from the net, right back to Schmidt who sent a pass in to Galloway, who nearly connected on a diving header attempt, only to be stoned by Matthews.

“Their goalie made some incredible saves to keep them in the game,” Roberts said. “Right before the end of (regulation) he robbed Parker on that play with a beautiful save.”

Galloway also accounted for the Devils’ first goal.

Schmidt played an excellent through ball to Galloway, who raced toward Matthews and got close enough to fire a shot to his left that Matthews couldn’t contort himself enough to stop.

That came with 30:35 showing. Roughly six minutes later, it was the visitors’ turn to knot the score.

Villapalos lofted a perfect corner kick to the far post where Ben Rivers headed the ball down and toward the net and the bounce back sailed past St. C. keeper Talan Rice into the net.

Cambridge made good on one of its three shot attempts in the first half. They’d only get two the rest of the way.

“They upped their intensity because I believe they were frustrated with the first half,” Fox said of St. C.’s overwhelming share of the second-half possession time. “And I also think we got a little bit tired. Other than that, the only other thing is we didn’t keep a hold of some passes that we had.”

St. Clairsville 2, Cambridge 1, OT

C – Goal: Rivers. Assist: Villapalos. Goalkeeper: Matthews (13 saves). S – Goals: Galloway 2. Assists: Schmidt. Goalkeeper: Rice (5 saves).