Gasber’s Header Lifts St. Clairsville Girls Into OVAC 4A Title Game

Top-Seeded Red Devils Outlast No. 4 Oak Glen, 6-5, In Double Overtime Thriller

ST. CLAIRSVILLE - In a back-and-forth match that 85 minutes wasn't enough to settle, St. Clairsville's Emma Gasber used her head to figure out how to get the Red Devils into the OVAC Class 4A girls' soccer championship.

The senior headed in a corner kick from Ashlynn Lednik in the 89th minute as top-seeded St. Clairsville (11-2) outlasted No. 4 Oak Glen (7-5) by a 6-5 count in semifinal action on the wet artificial pitch at Red Devil Stadium.

"That was a huge goal. We really needed to win this game," Gasber said. "I'm really proud of our team. We really pushed through. It was a tough game."

With the hard-earned victory, the Red Devils advanced to Saturday's championship match against No. 2 Linsly (8-2-1) which blanked third-seeded Cambridge, 3-0, Monday night at muddy Holloway Field on the Leatherwood campus. The title tilt will be contested at 10 a.m. at Weir High School's Jimmy Carey Stadium.

St. Clairsville hasn't won an OVAC girls' soccer championship since 2012-13 when it went back-to-back.

"This is a good year to win it," Gasber noted.

St. Clairsville head coach Wes Stoner, while happy with the win, wasn't pleased with his team's performance.

"It was a golden-goal. We needed it," he stressed. "By no means did we play anywhere near our best defensive game. We left Kiya out to dry at least three or four times, and credit to them (Oak Glen), they took advantage of it. We need to work with our back line this week."

Oak Glen, like it did on Sept. 8 when the two met in Belmont County, took the early lead on a goal by Bailey Watts in the sixth minute. St. Clairsville responded in lightning-quick fashion as

Addison Mobley sent a beautiful cross to Elizabeth Morgan in the middle of the box and she re-directed the ball past Oak Glen goalkeeper Camryn Richards.

Gasber tallied the first of three goals on the night in the 17th minute to give the hosts a 2-1 lead. She leaked behind the Golden Bears back line where Elizabeth Morgan found her with a nice feed. Gasber used her right foot to tickle the twine with a rocket past the diving Richards.

Raegan Gaiser bumped the margin to 3-1 when she pooched the ball into the back of the net from 10 yards out. Elizabeth Morgan notched another helper.

Oak Glen sliced into the deficit in the 20th minute when Kendall Krzys was in all along and dribbled around a charging St. Clairsville goalkeeper Kiya Kyer, slipping the ball into the empty net.

St. Clairsville missed a golden scoring opportunity as the first half ended when Gasber missed an open net from point-blank range.

Kyer charged out to play the ball in the 60th minute, but Watts beat her to the ball and dribbled around her before putting the ball in the cage to draw Oak Glen to a 3-all deadlock.

The Golden Bears took their second lead of the night eight minutes later when Chloe Thompson tapped in a free kick by Angelina Polly to make it 4-3. Moments later, a lob by Krzys clanked off the cross-bar and trickled away from the goal.

The Red Devils drew even when Gasber dribbled down the left wing before sending the ball ahead to Lednik. The senior sent a laser along the turf that slid past a diving Richards in the 66th minute.

Not even a minute later, Gasber was in all along before using her left foot to put the Red Devils on top, 5-4.

Krzys deadlocked things in the 74th minute.

Neither team had a serious scoring chance in the first 5-minute overtime and just when it appeared that penalty kicks were going to decide the outcome, Gasber leapt high above a scrum of players to head the ball past Richards for the game-winner.

"I think we showed a tone of resilience to just stick with it," Stoner said. "We've got a lot of girls that have played in some big games during their career. Now they get to play in another."

Krzys and Watts both finished with two goals apiece, while Krzys added a pair of assists and Watts had one. Angelina Polly had two helpers.

Oak Glen head coach Bill Watts said while the game might have been exciting for the fans, coaches don't like that much excitement.

"First of all, congratulations to St. Clairsville. They are a good team. Good luck to them on Saturday," Watts said. "From our standpoint, I'm just super happy with my girls. We played through a lot of adversity tonight. When we played them the first time, I thought we gave them a few goals on mistakes. Tonight, there weren’t any mistakes. We played our tails off.

"We are a very young team. This was a growing stage for us," he added. "I thought we played really well."