Ashlynn Lednik’s Hat Trick Lifts St. Clairsville Past Oak Glen, 3-1
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Ashlynn Lednik spent nearly all of her junior year watching her St. Clairsville teammates advance to the Ohio Division IV Eastern District girls' soccer tournament semifinals. She injured her knee early in the season and had season-ending surgery not long after.
However, she is back for her senior season and Tuesday night she put that on display. Lednik scored all three goals as the Red Devils (7-2) recorded a 3-1 victory over Oak Glen (5-2) in a matchup of OVAC Class 4A leaders on the artificial pitch at Red Devil Stadium.
The Golden Bears entered the match ranked second, one spot ahead of the Red Devils. Cambridge, St. Clairsville's road opponent on Thursday.
"I'm starting to get back into the groove of things. It's been a long rollercoaster of ups and downs, but I'm really happy that I'm seeing improvement," Lednik said. "Even my coach said he can see that in every practice and each game."
"She's going right now," St. Clairsville head coach Wes Stoner said. "We needed every one of the three she scored tonight. She had a good game tonight, so, hopefully, that continues later on this week.
While the physical part of overcoming the injury is well in hand, there is still the mental aspect.
"It's definitely not the easiest,' she admitted. "Sitting on the sideline all last year was very hard to watch my teammates do something that I love and to not be a part of it, but I'm really excited for this season because we have a great group of girls. It's nice to be able to spend my senior season doing what I love and not having to watch."
Lednik put St. Clairsville ahead 1-0 before the fans had even settled into their seats. Taking a pass from Emma Gasber, Lednik dribbled around an Oak Glen defender in the low box to the left of goalkeeper Camryn Richards. Lednik used her left foot to roll the ball in the far corner a mere 23 ticks into the contest.
Oak Glen responded as Bailey Watts evened things on the Golden Bears' first shot of the game in the middle of the fourth minute. Her goal was very similar to Lednik's as she went far corner against St. Clairsville keeper Kiya Kyer.
However, that would be all the scoring the Hancock Countians would be able to generate against the Red Devils' suffocating defense.
"Congratulations to St. Clairsville. They played well tonight," Oak Glen head coach Bill Watts said. "I think we'll play them again in the OVAC Tournament. I'm looking forward to it."
Lednik sailed a direct free kick from 30 yards out past Richards in the 26th minute and the Red Devils never looked back.
Lednik had a couple other scoring opportunities but she hit the side of the net with one shot and blasted a point-blank shot over the cross-bar.
She completed her hat trick in the 42nd minute off an assist from Elizabeth Morgan. Lednik's blast from the left of the box trickled through Richards' fingers and into the net.
"We didn't make any changes at halftime," Stoner said. "We focused a little bit more. I thought we missed a couple of scoring chances in the first half that we should've cashed in on, but, overall, I'm very happy with how we played tonight."
"We're still a work in progress. We have a combination of five seniors and four freshmen, so we're kind of an old and young team," Watts explained. "We haven't had very many competitive games yet, so we'll use this one as a measuring stick. We know what we have to work on."
Kyer finished with five saves. Richards was called upon to make nine.