MORGANTOWN — The Trinity Christian High School soccer team defeated Wood County Christian 4-1 in the OVAC tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday evening high on the hill in Sabraton.
After taking a lead just 27 seconds into the game, the Warriors seemed poised to take control of the game early on, but a strong response from the visitors earned an equalizing goal just before halftime.
However, an adjustment at the break and strong second-half play saw TCS score three goals in the final 40 minutes to blow open the lead without looking back. The Warriors will travel for their next game either at Linsly or Steubenville Catholic (Oh.) in the semi-finals on Thursday.
It didn’t take long at all for TCS to break the ice as senior forward Carmelo Kniska ran to a through ball played by Brock Shuba and finished calmly to the left corner of the WCC goal for the first of the game just 27 seconds into the contest.
The Wildcats responded well after conceding the quick goal, not allowing the Warriors to ride the wave of momentum en route to another goal.
Their persistence was rewarded late in the first half as senior midfielder Sam Chichester found himself free inside of the box of Trinity and poked a rolling shot passed Ben Lohmann for the equalizing goal and the halftime score of 1-1.
“We talked about two things at halftime, being that this was a good thing,” TCS head coach Dan Lohmann said. “Playing in games like this is a good thing and we weren’t trailing so we still had control of the game. The second thing was winning the individual battles.”
The second half picked up right where the first had left off, with both teams seeing some positive play and linking passes into the attacking third of the field. Each goalkeeper produced some impressive saves multiple times to keep the opposing attackers from scoring.
Lohmann was rewarded for his diving effort at the 24-minute mark, as the Warriors earned their second goal of the game to take the lead.
Carmelo Kniska scored his second goal of the game after rifling a shot into the back of the net from close range giving his team a 2-1 lead with 22 minutes left on the clock.
This time, the hosts used the positive momentum of scoring a goal to their advantage and caught the WCC defense off guard less than a minute later.
This time, it was the younger Kniska, Lucas, who found the back of the net. He ran onto a through ball down the right side of the field before firing home inside the near post for an impressive goal.
Johnathan Steptoe added the fourth and final goal with 18 minutes left to play, reaching our final score of 4-1.
“We are trying to challenge our players with finding the ball out wide and playing in from there,” Lohmann said. “We have a lot of assists on goals this year, which is great to see, these guys want to share the ball with each other and find the open man. But we also like to see them finishing their goals when they get the chance. We responded fantastically and they took the score at halftime as a challenge and I was calm in the moment because these guys are competitors and want to win for each other.”
