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Oak Glen girls run the table on Madonna, advance to sectional finals

TURNING AROUND — Oak Glen’s Maggie Kovalcik (5) looks to shoot past Madonna’s Madison Bine during a Class AA/A Region 1 Section 1 semifinal on Wednesday. Alsow shown are Oak Glen’s Brooklyn Loveland (24) and Madonna’s Shannon Westfall (11). (Photo by Joe Catullo)

NEW MANCHESTER — The Oak Glen girls soccer team played on Wednesday like the No. 1 seed it is in the Class AA/A Region 1 Section 1 and handily disposed of Madonna 4-0 at the Oak Glen Sports Complex.

The Golden Bears will host Hancock County-rival Weir High, which defeated Wheeling Central 2-1 in overtime on Wednesday. That game will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Oak Glen.

After a scoreless first half, the Golden Bears got two goals each from junior Maggie Kovalcik and freshman Reece Enochs in the second half.

Enochs broke the scoreless tie with her first goal at the 32:50 mark off an assist from Kovalcik, who’s first goal was less than three minutes later and unassisted. Kovalcik then lit up the scoreboard again at 16:15 on a scramble in front of the goal and an assist from senior Kennedy Graves. The final goal of the game came with 2:33 left and was by Enochs on another assist from Kovalcik.

“Enochs and Kovalcik are our leading scorers because those girls can finish,” Oak Glen head coach Ryan Wells said. “They definitely benefit from the hard work of nine other girls behind them. We talked about that before the game, and we said we expected Madonna to mark them up hard. Even when they are being double- and triple-teamed they still find a way to score.

“But our whole team looked about as good as we looked all season. We knew coming in Madonna was probably going to pack it in, which they did. I told the girls before the game we had to expect they were going to do that, and that the first goal was so crucial whether we got it or they got it.”

Veteran Madonna coach Bob Kolanko said after the game that his strategy was to play defense primarily and try to get some openings for offensive rushes. He added that injuries played a big role in his game plan as several players were out and a couple others played hurt.

“With the shortage of girls we have and the injuries we have, we had to play a very defensive-minded game,” Kolanko said. “While we had 11 girls on the field, we had five of them playing with significant injuries that they shouldn’t even be out there and we had only one sub.

“Just the fact that they went out there and fought the first half without giving up a goal is a credit to the girls and the way they played. Give some credit to Oak Glen, too. The way that our girls played and finished all the way through, I’m real pleased with it.”

The tale of the tape shows how lopsided the game was as the Oak Glen statistician had the Golden Bears limiting the Blue Dons to just three shots, all saved by Golden Bear keeper Kaylee Travis. Meanwhile, the Bears shot the ball 42 times with senior Madonna keeper Kasey Canei saving on 22 of them.

“We are blessed with speed,” said Wells, who’s club now is 15-4-1. “We are not only blessed with speed up front; we have speed in the back. When teams try to play the long ball on us we have three girls in the back that can run with most teams’ strikers. We like to frustrate teams because that allows us to push hard forward. We can push numbers forward to score because we know we have speed in the back to counter anything that may happen.

“When you have a group of girls that are willing to come out and work for the long season, it is special. I just told the girls we are peaking at exactly the right time.”

With the loss, the Blue Dons finished their season. With the adversity they had, Kolanko said he was pleased.

“We finished with a record of 10-10-1, and if you would have told me at the beginning of the season that would be our record, I would have told you that you are little bit crazy,” Kolanko said. “We had six returning players from last year. Some of our players never played soccer before.

“We had great teams the last three years. We had three returning seniors, and I’m very proud of the way those three stepped up. One of our high points was tying the OVAC champions, Wheeling Central. Overall, with the strength of schedule we play, I’m very pleased with this group.”

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