St. Clairsville Boys Repeat As OVAC Class 4A Champs
No. 2 Red Devils Defeat No. 4 Oak Glen, 5-2
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WEIRTON - Every team has a checklist of accomplishments they want to secure during the course of their season. The St. Clairsville boys' soccer team is no different.
Saturday afternoon on the sun-soaked artificial pitch at Weir High School's Jimmy Carey Stadium, the second-seeded Red Devils (8-4) defeated No. 4 Oak Glen (6-5) by a 5-2 count to repeat as OVAC Class 4A champions.
"This feels pretty good going back-to-back," St. Clairsville head coach Jeff Roberts said. "I don't think many people expected much out of this year after losing, arguably, the best player and best keeper in our area, so people probably wrote us off, but these kids have been working really hard over the summer and so far this season to get to this point.
"This is always our first goal ... the minor goal, not to diminish it in any way, but we want to get as far as we can in the postseason," Roberts noted.
The Golden Bears shocked everyone, including the Red Devils, with a fast start that led to the match's opening goal. Senior Jordan Tomsic tapped the ball into an empty net as St. Clairsville goalkeeper Brycen Beck was screened on the play in the first minute.
"Oak Glen came ready to play, and it showed," Roberts said. "We eventually got our roll going and started to play well."
Three minutes later, St. Clairsville drew even when Lucas Causey sent a long throw-in to the box where Caden Blacker outleaped everyone and headed the ball backwards into the net.
The Red Devils took the lead for good 10 minutes later when James Parsons, who had six PATs in Friday night's football victory over Wheeling Park, banged home another Causey assist from point-blank range, making it 2-1.
Trevor Tuttle bumped the count to 3-1 in the 30th minute when he headed another throw-in by Causey past Oak Glen goalkeeper Jackson O'Rourke.
Camden Judge got into the scoring act when his blast from 30 yards sailed past O'Rourke and into the twine in the 50th minute.
Chase Hartung brought Oak Glen to within 4-2 in the 60th minute, but Tuttle was fouled in the box, prompting a penalty kick which he drove home in the 75th minute.
"We got the early goal and then they got one and you could tell nerves set in," Oak Glen first-year head coach Camden Barr said. "My kids came out in the second half and gave it everything they had. That's all I can ask for. I'm looking forward to the end of our schedule when regionals roll around. That's our big goal ... to make it downstate."
Beck made one save in the first half before being replaced by Keenan White in the second. White was also called upon to make just one stop.
O'Rourke, meanwhile, did his best to keep the Golden Bears close with 20 saves.
"Their goalkeeper stood on his head and spun around. He played an outstanding game for them."
St. Clairsville is back in action Tuesday when it travels north on Ohio 7 to East Liverpool. Oak Glen, meanwhile, treks to North Marion on Monday.