St. Clairsville Girls Soccer A Win Away From State Berth

Top-Seeded Red Devils Eliminate West Holmes, 3-1, In D-IV, Region 14 Semis

CAMBRIDGE - Elizabeth Morgan shows up when the stage is the biggest.

The junior scored two goals and assisted on the third as red-hot St. Clairsville (19-2) continued its solid play with a 3-1 victory over West Holmes (9-7-4) in a OHSAA Division IV, Region 14 girls' soccer semifinal Tuesday night on the artificial pitch at Cambridge High School's McFarland Stadium.

With the win, its 14th in a row, St. Clairsville advances from the Sweet Sixteen to the Elite Eight and will meet Worthington Christian, a 3-2 winner in double overtime over Wheelersburg, on Saturday in a rematch of two years ago. The site and time will be released sometime Wednesday.

"I feel like the pressure makes me want it (to win) even more," Morgan, who scored the game-winner in overtime against Beaver Local in the 2024 Eastern District championship game at Harding Stadium in Steubenville, said. "All the pressure of everyone saying 'we've got to win, we've got to win' because we're the No. 1 seed, so we just have to show out and finish."

The two teams battled to a scoreless first half as neither team could find its scoring touch. That all changed in the second 40 minutes.

Morgan tickled the twine twice in the first seven minutes to stake the Red Devils to a 2-0 advantage.

"I just knew we needed to finish and the ball was right in front of me, so I just kicked it towards the goal," Morgan said of her first net-finder, which was assisted on by her younger sister, Felicity. "On the second goal, I just saw an open net and we were working on our one-touches before the game and mine was pretty good, so I let it rip." Molly Schultz assisted.

St. Clairsville head coach Wes Stoner said he didn't have to say much to the girls at halftime.

"I really didn't say anything to them," Stoner said of his halftime speech. "I just told them to relax. I think we had some nerves early on and we were rushing our shots. We had several chances in the first half that we could've scored on, but we either hit them too hard or had too big of a punch. They (the girls) corrected it in the second half."

Stoner had a premonition in pre-game warmups.

"When we were warming up I saw that Emily was striking the ball really well. I told her before the match even started that 'you're hitting the ball really well. You shoot when you get the opportunity', and she did. Both of her goals were perfect shots."

West Holmes cut the deficit in half in the 61st minute as high-scoring Charli Taylor got behind the defense and beat St. Clairsville goalkeeper Kiya Kyer to the ball, finishing a nice feed from Codi Murphy. It was the Ashland University recruit's 46th goal of the season and the 157th of her outstanding career.

"Defensively, we had to know where No. 4 (Charli Taylor) was at all times," Stoner noted. "She's a problem, but we were focused on her. She has almost 50 goals this season for a reason. I told her afterwards that she is a pain to coach against."

Six minutes later, Elizabeth Morgan sent a corner kick towards the box that Emma Gasber blasted into the back of the net for a 3-1 margin.

Kyer finished with seven saves.

"That was a beautiful corner kick and Emma was in the right spot," Stoner recalled.

With his team one win away from its first-ever state tournament berth, Stoner knew this was possible before the season ever began.

"During the summer. I told them it was possible for them to get to the state tournament if they played well enough and continued to improve," he admitted. "They have played phenomenal since that loss at Linsly On Sept. 1. They've put in a lot of work since June 1st behind the scenes where all the fans don't get to see. The blood, sweat and tears. They deserve everything that is happening. I'm proud of them."