Golden Bears run into a strong Wheeling Central squad, fall 3-0
Trending
WHEELING -- Wheeling Central put on a dominant defensive performance Monday evening, serving as a microcosm of the Maroon Knights lengthy string of solid play.
The recent OVAC Class 1A-3A champions limited visiting Oak Glen to one shot on goal in a 3-0 victory that capped a month-long dominant streak.
In short? The Maroon Knights are incredibly difficult to score upon.
Throughout the entire month of September, Central surrendered one goal in 11 games, outsourcing opponents 82-1 during that stretch.
The lone goal came in a 3-1 win against rival Linsly last week.
"Our girls have just been killing it, controlling the ball, working the field and communicating," commented Central head coach Ashley Winters as her team improved to 13-1-1. "It's a crazy big difference from the last couple of years to this year, how much they have gelled as a team and are controlling the field."
Oak Glen came to play, however, and made Central work for its most recent victory.
Through the first 40 minutes, the Knights managed one goal against Golden Bears' keeper Cameron Michaud.
Michaud deflected a shot attempt crossing in from the left side, only to see an alert Brooke Porter poked in the deflection.
Central's other four shot attempts were turned away.
Winters noted that her team's efforts to pass through Oak Glen's back line were unsuccessful, met with heavy resistance as the visitors dropped extra defenders to slow down Central's attack.
The second half, the hosts started shooting from further back and at higher angles, but even that was met with difficulty.
Michaud managed to jump up and deflect multiple shot attempts that the Central bench and coaching staff were all but positive were going to find the back of the net.
Still, Rylee Wright managed to score goal number two with less than 30 minutes remaining, lofting a shot above Michaud's hands from deep from the right side.
The final tally came with less than 10 minutes to play when fellow freshman Elizabeth Steele also snuck a lob atop the keeper's hands.
"Cam does a really solid job for us," Oak Glen head coach Bill Watts noted. "We've given up some goals, but some of those teams had 90 percent possession so she gets put in a bad spot sometimes.
"She makes those saves more often than not though, and she's just a junior so we're glad she'll be around for another year."
Central's experienced back line frustrated Oak Glen's forwards, not allowing any solid shot opportunities, save for one in the first half which keeper Bella Fitsimmons turned away.
The only other opportunity came in the second half on a direct kick which sailed just wide of the right-side of the net.
Central's talented midfield gets a lot of attention, and rightfully so. But Winters noted its her back line and keeper that keep the opposition off the scoreboard and the coach's stress level at manageable levels.
"Our back line is very solid," Winters said. "The four of them work so well together. That back line, I put all my faith in them and when you have a solid back line, it makes my job as a coach extremely easy.
"And Bella is such an awesome goalie. She's phenomenal, but when you have the other 10 on the field that are keeping it away from her, I can't complain. It makes her job as a keeper easier too."
Oak Glen has some talent up front, but it's short on game experience. The golden bears roster features only two players that participate in club ball.
There are starters on the field participating in their first year of soccer, so Watts is pleased with his team's progress and positivity and knows better things are coming.
"I loved our effort," Watts said. "We battled through the whole thing. We made some skill mistakes, but we've drastically improved, even though we're not threatening offensively as much as we need to.
"But we're competing with teams that, on paper, should be a lot better than us."
The Golden Bears have an opportunity to right the ship tonight as they play host to Cambridge.
Michaud finished with nine saves while Fitzsimmons needed just the one to preserve the clean sheet.