Maroon Knights pull away from the Huskies for 6-0 win
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CADIZ -- Harrison Central and head coach Mindy Madzia knew they'd have their hands full with Wheeling Central during senior night in Cadiz.
Despite a flurry of shots, the Maroon Knights led only 2-0 at the break.
But the OVAC 1A-3A runners up had better success in slipping shots past Harrison keeper Vanessa Dowdle in the second half, tacking on four extra goals in the 6-0 victory.
"They are a really good team and we knew that coming into the match," Madzia said of the Maroon Knights, who improved their record to 14-4-1. "We couldn't make the connections. We had a good game against Creek and some of the girls were fighting sickness but they wouldn't give up and played through it.
But we couldn't finish. We had some shots--better shots in the second half--but couldn't finish.
Credit Central's midfield and defense for that.
Harrison makes no secret it likes to play through balls down the sideline for the speedy Angi Ferri to chase down and fire on net. That sequence of events wasn't happening early. Ferri finally got a decent shot at net in the second half, but Maroon Knights' keeper Bella Fitzsimmons turned it away.
Fitzsimmons needed only three saves to preserve the clean sheet.
The win snapped a brief two-game losing skid for Central, having fallen to Oak Glen 1-0 after the 4-2 loss to Linsly in the OVAC finale.
Next up is a sectional match-up with Magnolia before a potential rematch with the Golden Bears. Region 1, Section 1 is loaded this season with Oak Glen (12-6-1), Central, and OVAC 4A champion Weir (15-2-1) which bested Steubenville Catholic 6-0 on Monday.
"We're getting ready for sectionals," Central head coach Mackenzie Smith said. "We host Magnolia at our place and then we'll see where we go from there. We're getting ready.
"These games, every game counts, so we just need to keep moving forward."
Central started moving forward with 21:50 in the first half when Mariah Ratcliffe buried a well-placed ball from Ramsay Mansuetto past Dowdle for a 1-0 score.
Mansuetto found Ratcliffe on the right side who fired hard toward her left. Dowdle dove and got a touch on the ball, but not enough to keep it out of the net.
The second goal came on a near perfectly bent corner kick from Kendall Schmitt.
Set up from the left side, Schmitt booted the corner just past Dowdle, who raced with hands up to block the shot, only for it to arc around her. It actually hit off the hair bun of one of her defenders and into the net.
That came with 7:04 remaining and the score remained 2-0 until Brooke Porter put one past a diving Dowdle with 37:37 left in the second half.
"She played amazing, especially in the first half because we were fully in it," Madzia said of her junior keeper. "You have to give that girl credit that made the corner shot. She bent it in. But I told the girls it was 2-0 at half and we had nothing to be ashamed of."
Isabella Brown shot low in the second half and just made it through Dowdle's legs as she angled her body downward to block the shot with 33:43 left and Ratcliffe tallied her second goal a few minutes later.
Kate Tiu tacked on the final goal when she fired from the far left side on a shot that Dowdle and nearly every player on the pitch felt was headed just out of bounds. It somehow found the back corner of the net for the final tally.
Ratcliffe added an assist to go with her brace for the Knights.
Harrison heads to New Martinsville on Thursday for its regular-season finale before traveling to Coshocton for a first-round, Division II girls sectional match with the Redskins.