ST. CLAIRSVILLE – For the third straight fall, Wheeling Park is the OVAC Class 5A boys’ soccer champion. The second-seeded Patriots (13-2-1) upset No. 1 seed Morgantown by a 3-1 score on the artificial pitch inside St. Clairsville’s Red Devil Stadium.
With the hard-earned victory, which avenged a 2-1 setback in Morgantown earlier this season, Wheeling Park pulled into a tie with Linsly and Weir for the most boys’ soccer titles. All three schools have 12. The Patriots other titles came in 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2008-11, 2019, 2021-22.
“This is always a goal of ours when each season begins,” Wheeling Park head coach Mario Julian, who recorded his eighth title as the coach, said. “We had two games to win it, and we got it done today.
“We battled and battled. That is a good Morgantown team,” he added.
Sophomore midfielder Sam Rockey gave the Patriots, ranked No. 2 in the Mountain State’s Class AAA behind the Mohigans (11-3-1), a 1-0 lead midway through the first half when he found the back of the net off an assist by Wilson Hanna.
“We played the ball to our center midfielder, Luke Dunaway, and he played a perfect ball to Wilson. He sent a great cross to Sam and he banged it home,” Julian said of the first goals.
It stayed that way until Morgantown pulled even on a direct kick by Aidan Stire in the 50th minute. The goal came from 45 yards out and sailed into the top left-hand corner of the net and just past a leaping Wheeling Park goalkeeper Gavin Border.
But before the fans got settled back into their seats, the Patriots took the lead for good a minute later. Hanna netted the goal on an incredible effort.
“Wilson is a big kid for a sophomore,” Julian said of Hanna. “We told him to hold the ball up and be patient. They will have to knock you over to get it away from you. They didn’t knock him down and he put the ball in the net.”
Morgantown threatened several times in the final 20 minutes, Border stood tall between the pipes. The junior recorded nine saves on 18 shots.
“The championship means more than getting a shut out,” Border said. “Everybody stepped up on defense. My back line has played well all season.”
While Border was keeping the Mohigans at bay with some acrobatic saves, the offense continued to put balls into the back of the net.
Junior sensation Tresz McLeod used some fancy footwork before sending the ball past the Morgantown keeper. The unassisted net-finder came in the 76th minute and took the wind out of the visitors’ sails.
“That was a beautiful goal. Tresz took on 3-4 players,” Julian praised. “He was a little snake-bit in the first half. He had some opportunities but couldn’t finish, so it was nice to see him get a goal.”
“We are banged up. They are beat up. It was a dogfight,” Morgantown head coach Sam Snyder offered. “In general, I thought we played pretty well.”
Wheeling Park defeated Dover to win the 2021 championship and took down University last season.
BY KIM NORTH/The Intelligencer
