Repeat For The Knights: Wheeling Central Wins Back-To-Back Girls Soccer Championships

BECKLEY — The WVSSAC girls soccer Class A/AA state championships is going back to Wheeling— where it never really left in the first place.

The Wheeling Central Maroon Knights are back-to-back state girls soccer champions after defeating the Lincoln Cougars 2-0 on Saturday morning inside the YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Sports Complex, the Knights earning their 20th win of the season on the biggest stage in the state.

“That was the goal at the beginning of the season,” Wheeling Central head coach Bill Konkle said. “The team wanted to get back to Beckley and repeat as state champions. Currently, the girls are super excited. The seniors are pretty emotional. We’re just glad to set a goal and actually be able to accomplish it.”

Both of the Maroon goals came off the foot of junior Loni Kusic, who bookended the contest for Central, scoring first just a few minutes into the game, and again inside the final 10 minutes of the game.

“Loni, she’s had an incredible season,” Konkle said. “She was able to find the goal early. Elah [Konkle] kind of got through, kind of sent one over, she tucked it in early in the game, and it allowed us to kind of get a little bit relaxed and play a little bit more comfortable. Then, the pressure started to heat up in that last 20 minutes of the game, and we were trying to find another goal just to reduce some of that pressure we were under, and she was able to hit a beautiful shot right to the upper corner. That kind of gave everybody a sense of calmness, and then we were able just to play our game for the remainder of the time. Loni had an incredible season this year.”

In-between Kusic’s scores, the Maroon defense was simply impassable. The Cougars struggled to square up too many shots in their limited time on the attack, and senior keeper Bella Fitzsimmons turned away each infrequent chance, including perhaps Lincoln’s best look at the goal, a short-range shot from the left side by Eryn Ashcraft in the 76th minute of the game.

“With our back line, you got Kendall Schmitt, you got Maddie Steele, you got Meredith Komorowski. You got Berklee Heller, and then usually Addie Hanson sits in the center defensive mid, but today we used Elizabeth Steele to kind of mark up one of their best players. Our defense takes such pride in not giving up goals. They did have numerous shutouts throughout the season. We don’t really give up many goals, and when you have Bella Fitzsimmons— I think that was her 51st shutout, which I’m assuming is a school record— it was a pretty dynamic group of defenders that don’t always get recognized because most of the time goals and assists and things like that get recognized. But, they were a very special group all season long.”

Saturday was a rematch of last year’s state championship, where Central won 3-1. The Maroon Knights were a young team last year, and remained so this year— there are five seniors on this year’s Central squad, including team captains Bella Fitzsimmons, Kendall Schmitt and Addi Hanson as well as Madigan Smith and Kaila Blatt.

“The seniors, special group,” Konkle said. “Three of the seniors were our captains that led the team this season. This game, they were all out there together to end the game, which was a pretty special experience for them. Last year’s team there was a lot of seniors that were responsible for helping us get to that championship game and winning. And now this year, it was their turn to step up and get that playing time and that experience, and they stepped up to the challenge and did a remarkable job.”

Central got on the board very quickly on Saturday, courtesy of Kusic and sophomore Elah Konkle, who played a two-man passing game back-and-forth right down broadway just a few minutes into the championship match. From Kusic, to Konkle, and back to Kusic, the ball ping-ponged back and forth until Kusic had earned a clean rip at the goal, finding the back of the net for a 1-0 tally which would remain the score of the game until it’s closing minutes.

In the 73rd minute, Hanson managed to pilfer the ball away from a Lincoln midfielder, and boot a pass to Kusic who, more than 25 yards away from the goal, didn’t hesitate to launch a lofting shot perfectly placed up and over the Cougar goalie to put Wheeling Central in the driver’s seat with a 2-0 lead.

Central was seeded atop the Class AA/A tournament. Lincoln was the No. 2 seed.