TRACKING IT DOWN — Brooke’s Emily Shulte and St. Clairsville’s Kaylee Shafer chase a loose ball during Monday night’s girls soccer match at Red Devil Stadium. St. Clairsville rallied for a 2-1 victory. - Kim North

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — All high school soccer matches are big, but with the OVAC cut-off looming Thursday night, Monday’s match between Brooke and St. Clairsville was really big for the Red Devils.

“It was a must-win for us,” St. Clairsville head coach Wes Stoner said after his Red Devils squeaked out a 2-1 verdict over the visiting Bruins (5-6-1) on the artificial pitch inside Red Devil Stadium.

St. Clairsville trailed 1-0 at the half, something that didn’t set well with Stoner.

“I was not happy at halftime,” he admitted. “The first 20 minutes we played great. We had opportunities, we just weren’t finishing. In the next 20 minutes I don’t know what happened. We lost all of our effort.

“I told the girls that this game might be the difference between the No. 1 seed and the No. 2 seed in next week’s tournament, depending on what Weir does,” Stoner said. “The girls knew it was a big game, but they didn’t know that. I let them know about it at halftime. I just wanted to give them a little extra incentive for the second half.”

That incentive was all the hosts needed as they scored twice in the first seven minutes of the second half to rally for the victory.

“We came out quick and hard,” Stoner said of the early portion of the second half. “I wasn’t a huge fan of the last 10 minutes of game management with the lead. I know everyone wants to score, but with a 2-1 lead when you need to win, that’s a situation in an elimination game where the other team scores to tie the game.

“We’ve got to get better at our game management, but we are still very young,” he continued. “This was a learning situation for us.”

Brooke got on the scoreboard in the 23rd minute as Lyla Horvath sent the ball ahead to Morgan Mcmahon who had gotten behind two St. Clairsville defenders. Her shot from the right of Red Devils goalkeeper Kiya Kyer slid along the turf and glanced off the post to Kyer’s left and into the cage.

“I don’t think many goalkeepers could have gotten to that ball,” Stoner said of Brooke’s only net-finder. “No. 9 was all alone and her shot hit the post if I remember right. She’s quick.”

After his Knute Rockne-like halftime speech, the Red Devils found the net twice on first four shots against Brooke goalkeeper Ivy Myers, who had stopped all four shots she had faced in the initial 40 minutes. She finished with 12 saves.

Emma Gasber banged home a loose ball from deep in the crease to the right of Myers in the 41st minute off an assist from Olivia McKeever that drew the hosts even.

Seven minutes later, Ashlynn Lednik took a feed from Isabella Yeager and deposited the ball into the back of the net. It was the fourth shot of the half for the Red Devils, who only had four in the first 40 minutes.

Gasber had a chance to make it 3-1 but her breakaway was denied by a charging Myers in the 51st minute.

Kyer made seven saves.

Neither team threatened the remainder of the match.

“We just don’t want it. We’ve got too many girls that don’t care,” Brooke head coach Jack Minger said.

St. Clairsville travels to East Liverpool Thursday. A win would clinch the Buckeye 8 title and go a long ways towards a high seed in next week’s OVAC Tournament. Weir, a 3-1 winner last week over St. Clairsville, entered the night atop the Class 4A standings with 56.36 rating. The Red Devils were second at 43.13. Beaver Local (38.33) was third and Oak Glen fourth.