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South girls win OVAC 5A title

Patriots put 3 on the board to secure first OVAC girls soccer championship

Photo by Kim North The Parkersburg South girls soccer team won the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 5A championship with a 3-1 victory over University Saturday in St. Clairsville, Ohio.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — The seniors on the Parkersburg South girls’ soccer team had never beaten their fellow Class AAA foe University High on the soccer field in their four years.

However, that all changed within a two-hour time span Saturday afternoon on the artificial pitch inside Red Devil Stadium when the No. 1 seeded Patriots (13-0-2) posted a 3-1 decision over the second-seeded Hawks to capture the school’s first-ever Ohio Valley Athletic Conference championship in the sport.

“We’ve been a bridesmaid to University two of the last three years in the championship game, so I guess this is a bittersweet one for the girls to finally break through and beat them,” Parkersburg South head coach Ron Bucholtz said. “This group had never beaten University until today. We’ve had some tight ones with them in the OVAC championships and some regular season games and they’ve had some lop-sided wins, but it’s always been a tight battle.

“We played to a 0-0 deadlock earlier this season at their place,” he added. “They are a quality program and (coaches) Kat (Devlin) and Graham (Peace) do a great job coaching that group. They’ve got a good team and, obviously, they are a quality opponent. I’m very proud of the way my girls played today.

“In the first half they put some high pressure on us and took us out of our possession game,” Bucholtz noted. “We’re solid defensively, so they (University) really didn’t get too many scoring chances. We had a couple and finally broke through on the long-range shot.”

Bucholtz was referring to Callie Leasure’s lob from 35 yards out that sailed just over the outstretched arms of University goalkeeper Corinne Grabow and into the net. Jordan Huffman assisted on the net-finder that came in the 25th minute.

The Patriots avoided trouble early in the second half when defender Kathryn Bowers headed a ball away from deep in the box following a Hawks’ corner kick.

Nearly 15 minutes later, University was whistled for a hand-ball in the box that resulted in a penalty kick. Leasure sent a laser to the left of a diving Grabow, who just missed deflecting it away. The scoreboard read 2-0 in the 59th minute.

University sliced the deficit in half just two minutes later when the Patriots were guilty of a hand-ball in the box. Stephanie Chmiel went low along the rug into the left corner past a diving Parkersburg South goalkeeper Kendall Mader and into the cage.

Parkersburg South sealed the deal on a beautiful play in the 65th minute. Huffman took what Bucholtz thought was a terrible long shot that Charley Taylor outleaped Grabow for and headed into the net.

“”That was an outstanding goal,” Bucholtz beamed. “When Jordan sent the ball in I was just thinking a long, wild shot to the keeper. Charley stayed with it and went over top of the keeper’s head. She said she didn’t even know the ball went in. All she knew was she got her head on it.

“Getting the two-goal margin again was huge because in a one-goal game you never know what can happen.”

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