Wheeling Central Feels Ready For Playoffs After Dominant First Round
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WHEELING -- As far as postseason openers, it doesn't get much smoother than the Wheeling Central boys soccer squad's Wednesday on 16th Street Field.
Central cruised to a 10-0 mercy-rule win over St. Marys as the Maroon Knights embarked on another postseason expedition after making it all the way to the state championship game last year.
"We wanted to start off strong," Wheeling Central head coach Brian Komorowski said. "We wanted to start off fast. We knew the opponent we were playing, and we just wanted to come out, execute what we can do, and then get some of our other guys in."
Advancing in the Class AA/A Region 1 tournament, Wheeling Central-- now 12-5-3-- will face either Oak Glen a date to be determined in the regional semifinals.
Oak Glen, seeded fourth in Region 1, defeated Weir 4-2 at home. Top-seeded Wheeling Central met the Golden Bears once in the regular season, a 7-2 home win.
While Komorowski did not know which team his Knights would be playing after their win over St. Marys, he expected a tough match regardless of who came out on top.
"It’s a rivalry game," Komorowski said. "Those two teams, we’ve been playing them for years. We know what they are. We know their teams. It’s a rivalry game and anything can happen in those games. So you’ve got to come ready to play."
Against the Blue Devils, Owen Mullin, Luke Hevener, Cooper Crews, Maddox Ochap, Cade Taylor, Jacob Schultz and Dominic Lawrence all scored in the first half-- Crews scoring twice-- for an 8-0 halftime lead.
Mason Schumaker and Logan Schoolcraft scored early in the second half to bring the game to a premature end.
"Last year was a great year," Komorowski said. "This year we put a really difficult schedule together for them and they played really well and they stood up to every task that we asked them to do. They didn’t always come out with positive results, but they were really good games.
So I feel like they’re ready. They’re battle-tested, and they’re ready for the playoffs."