CHAMPS — The Weir High girls soccer team celebrates winning the OVAC Class 4A Championship on Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium. -- Nick Henthorn

WHEELING — The Weir Red Riders righted the ship long ago, and haven’t strayed course since.

Tying in their first match of the year and losing their next two, the Red Riders have since won 12 straight, their improvement and determination culminating in an OVAC 4A Championship on Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium, downing Oak Glen 4-1.

The Red Riders’ win ends Oak Glen’s six-year title reign in the division.

“We feel pretty good right now,” Weir head coach Jeremy Angelo said. “It’s been a long year, we’ve been working towards this, it was a preseason goal of ours and we were able to accomplish it. Girls worked hard, they played well again today and we saw it through all the way to the end.”

Weir, the No. 1 seed in the OVAC Tournament, went into halftime of their game against No. 2 Oak Glen tied 1-1.

Weir’s Olivia Baker broke open the scoring in the 30th minute with a leaping header, and for much of the first half, the Red Riders were on the attack.

Oak Glen struggled to possess in Weir territory for the first 40, but in the 33rd minute, the Golden Bears’ Kami Ward jumped on an opportunity after an errant pass gave her a breakaway at the goal. A top-shelf strike knotted the score one apiece, and going into the locker rooms it seemed as if Oak Glen had flipped the script on the game.

“Went in and talked to them,” Angelo said of halftime. “Told them what they did right, which was a lot of things. But we had two people make one mistake, and Oak Glen capitalized. You give Kami Ward an inch, she’s going to take a mile. We talked about how to fix those couple bad things, and we concentrated on the good, that’s what got us through.”

Weir outscored their opponents 3-0 in the second half, starting with a Baker goal in the 71st minute on a messy play that ended with Baker, the Oak Glen keeper and another Golden Bear defender laid out in front of the goal. Madelyn Cramer tallied the assist.

While the Red Riders took a little time to get their first score of the new half, they didn’t wait long for their second. Baker scored again in the 72nd minute for the senior to record a hat trick.

“All year it’s been like this,” Angelo said of Baker’s play. “She’s performing, she’s working hard. She’s one of the captains, a team leader, and when she plays hard and works, the rest of the team follows.”

Jaidyn Kelly put a bow on the game with a goal in the 78th minute.

The conference tourney championship was Weir’s sixth in program history.

Going back to the grind of the regular season, Weir (12-2-1) will play Linsly (7-3-3) at home on Oct. 3. Oak Glen (9-5-1) will play Wheeling Central Catholic (13-2-1) likewise at home on Oct. 3.