ON THE PITCH — Brooke’s Gianna Siegel and Wheeling Park’s Sarah Craycraft go after the ball during Wednesday’s OVAC tournament game. - Nick Henthorn

WHEELING — The Wheeling Park Patriots made it to the OVAC 5A girls soccer championship last year, and have earned another shot at the title after the top-ranked Patriots defeated No. 4 Brooke 5-1 on Wednesday inside Wheeling Island Stadium.

Brenna Tipton and Julia Dunaway each scored twice for Wheeling Park, who led 3-0 at the half and built a 5-0 lead before Brooke’s Aaliyah Siegel put through a penalty kick to put the Bruins on the board.

It was Dunaway that scored first Wednesday, earning a penalty kick herself in the eighth minute to put the Patriots on the board.

Time ticked by with Park nursing a single-score lead, with the game being played in Brooke’s crowded half of the field, with the Bruins keeping nine of their 11 players back on the defense throughout the whole first half.

“We had good possession, but they were doing it on purpose as far as basically parking the bus back there,” Wheeling Park head coach Tom Smith said. “So, they weren’t going to come north-to-south to let us open up the lanes. So we have to work east-to-west, left-to-right to actually open up the lanes in order to have opportunities to score on them. Otherwise, just all long distance shots. They did a good job of it for a good while. And once we broke through, then it kind of opened things up.”

Park’s Hailey Hastings scored next, in the 25th minute, on a chip shot that managed to get through a save attempt by Brooke keeper Ivy Myers, who had nine saves on the day.

Hastings tried another shot on goal in the 26th minute, the shot narrowly missing it’s mark and bouncing oddly off the corner of the crossbar and goal post- right to Dunaway, who punched through a cleanup-goal to increase Park’s lead to 3-0.

At halftime, Brooke tried to flex out a bit more on offense, but couldn’t find a goal until the late stages, with the game well in-hand for Park.

“It’s a very good team we played,” Brooke head coach Jack Minger said. “You know, they’re even a division higher than us. I’m proud of our girls. They didn’t give up, everything was holding tight. I think it was a bad call when they gave that first PK in the box to the girl, you know, girl took the dive, but that’s what it is. It kind of spiraled downhill from there, but I still think we gave them a good game. 5-1 against a team that’s a higher division than us, I think we did pretty good.”

Brenna Tipton scored both of Wheeling Park’s goals in the second half, her second goal coming on an impressive shot from over 20 yards away, her teammate erupting after the shot meandered through the air and just inside the goal post. Her goals came in the 45th minute and 55th minute.

Wheeling Park’s Riley Perry finished with two saves.

The Patriots and Bruins played last year in the first round of the OVAC tournament, Wheeling Park prevailing 7-1. Wheeling Park lost 3-0 to Parkersburg South in the 5A championship last year, and will have another chance in the title game on Saturday against No. 2 University, who defeated No. 3 Steubenville on Wednesday, 2-0.

“It’s always fun to play in a championship game,” Smith said right after the game. “There’s obviously more pressure for all the players, which hopefully brings out the best in both teams, really. And all you can hope for is a good quality championship game. I’m not sure who we’re playing yet, whether it’s University or Steubenville, but we need to come ready to play and prepare for games in the future. And like I said, playing a championship game is always a thrill for the girls.”