St. Clairsville’s Emma Gasber and Weir’s Bianca Pittman fight for possession of the ball.
ST. CLAIRSVILLE–Hancock County’s stranglehold on OVAC girls Class 4A soccer continues.
Madelyn Cramer scored two goals and Brynn Artman added a third as the Weir High Red Riders won their second-straight OVAC 4A championship with a 3-1 victory against St. Clairsville.
The win gives Weir’s its seventh OVAC championship and third since 2016.
Every other season since 2014 that Weir didn’t win the title, intra-county rival Oak Glen did.
The last team not from Hancock County to win a 4A title? St. Clairsville, back in 2013.
Since then, it’s been all Hancock County, and for the last two seasons, Weir is carrying the county banner.
“Weir is talented, they are great defensively and skilled everywhere and it’s tough to move the ball on them,” St. Clairsville head coach Wes Stoner admitted as his team fell to Weir 3-1 for the second time in as many weeks. ”
“They won it last year and all those kids except for (two) returned and they are still talented.”
The Red Riders (8-3-3) lost to Olivia’s from last season’s team–Bine and Baker, the latter of which accounted for 37 goals her senior season.
Making up for said goals has been a tough part for the Riders this season.
“We were able to dominate both halves and moved the ball well, but finishing has been a problem for us all year,” Weir head coach Jeremy Angelo noted. “We know that. We talked about that because we tend to make a lot of goalies look good.”
Angelo was alluding to the fact Weir’s attackers had a penchant for shooting right at St. C. keeper Kiya Kyer, though the sophomore did make a couple of nice diving and leaping saves as part of her 18-save effort.
Weir’s first goal came as a direct result of a handball inside the box with 24:33 showing in the first half.
Angelo elected to have leading scorer Madelyn Cramer take the shot, and her brief hesitation on her approach got Kyer to guess incorrectly and move her right to block the attempt while Cramer went right.
The Red Devils knotted the score with 15:57 showing when sophomore Emma Gasber took the ball from the left inside, brilliantly maneuvered around a defender and passed to freshman Elizabeth Morgan, who beat keeper Rayna Hoover to Hoover’s left for the 1-1 reading.
Cramer put Weir ahead for good with 7:44 before the half when she unleashed a crossing shot from the left side of the pitch toward the top-right corner of the net. Kyer dove and injured her shoulder on the play, but toughed it out the rest of the game.
The Riders’ final tally came with 8:55 left when Brynn Artman bent a shot into the top-left corner just past a diving Kyer for the 3-1 score.
“Losing 37 goals does hurt at some point, and you will feel that and we have, but our talent is there,” Angelo said. “We are able to control games. It’s just a matter of finishing. We have a few more games left and we’re looking forward to the sectionals and seeing what happens.”
A big advantage with Weir’s experienced roster is the solid play of its midfield and back line.
St. Clairsville attempted only three shots, with Hoover finishing with two saves. The Red Devils didn’t get off a legit shot attempt in the second half as Weir’s defense kept scoring chances from generating.
“Our defense plays hard and good, and they play smart,” Angelo said. “We have a lot of smart girls and they work hard. That comes from repetition and playing a lot together.”
St. C., meanwhile, will look to regroup Monday when they travel to Steubenville to take on Class 1A-3A runner-up Catholic Central before a tough Tuesday home match with John Glenn.
“They had a couple good shots, but Kiya did great,” Stoner said. “Defensively, we made a couple of switches that looked pretty good and we may stick with those later in the season.
“I have to see if we’ll have a goalie the rest of the way but we have a couple of tough matches before sectional play starts.”
