PROTECTING — Weir High’s Kameryn Mallas looks to keep the ball away from Wheeling Central’s Addi Hanson during Tuesday’s Class A/AA Region 1 championship game. - Kim North

EAST WHEELING — History was made on the artificial pitch at the chill-filled J.B. Chambers Memorial Recreation Park Turf Field-16th Street Complex on Tuesday night.

By virtue of its 7-0 whitewashing of No. 2 Weir in the W.Va. Class A-AA Region I championship match, top-seeded Wheeling Central (18-3-1) advanced to its first-ever girls’ state soccer tournament next week at the YMCA Cline Memorial Sports Complex in Beckley.

“The girls are super excited. I talked with a couple people and was told that this has never been done before in school history,” Wheeling Central head coach Bill Konkle said amidst a joyous celebration. “This is something these girls have been planning on since the start of the season. They wanted to win an OVAC (Class 1A-3A) championship and they wanted to make it to Beckley which they were able to do tonight.”

Wheeling Central started playing soccer in 1995 when current boys coach Brian Komorowski was the head coach.

Five different players scored goals for Wheeling Central, with sophomore Loni Kusic tallying a pair. Others tickling the twine were seniors Mariah Ratcliffe, Gianna Konkle, Seneca Heller; and sophomores Aylin Yoho and Rylee Wright.

“We have 4 or 5 20-goal scorers, so we’ve got a variety of girls that can find the net, which has been very good throughout the season,” Coach Konkle said. “We got everybody into the match tonight which we hope will be beneficial moving forward.”

Freshman Elah Konkle recorded a trio of assists, while Elizabeth Steele had a pair of helpers and Kusic one.

Ratcliffe got the scoring started in the 20th minute and Kusic followed four minutes later. The margin grew to 3-0 in the 34th minute when Gianna Konkle drilled a penalty kick along the rug and into the lower right corner. The penalty kick was the result of a hand-ball on the Red Riders (10-8-3) in the box.

“We knew we would play a lot of defense tonight. We also made two mistakes that took it from 1-0 to 3-0, so it wasn’t what they did but what we did to ourselves,” Weir head coach Jeremy Angelo said. “Those two goals changed the match. We’ve done that against certain good teams.

“They move the ball. They are young and good and will be tough to deal with in the future.”

Heller, playing with a touch of the flu, blasted a shot from the right wing that deflected off the hands of Weir goalkeeper Bella Weber and into the cage for a 4-0 reading in the 43rd minute.

Kusic scored again in the 53rd minute and Yoho and Wright scored on back-to-back shots in the 70th minute, with Yoho’s net-finder allowing the clock to run continuously for the remainder of the match.

Junior goalkeeper Bella Fitzsimmons was only called upon to make one save, that coming in the first half on a free kick from 35 yards out.

“The girls do a really good job on the defensive end. Sometimes they might not get all the credit they deserve because our (offensive) attack is always so fast, but the three seniors holding down the back line have done a fantastic job,” Coach Konkle said of Monti Smith, Addie Payton and Gianna Konkle.

Weber was peppered with 27 shots, with 16 coming in the second 40 minutes. She recorded 20 saves.

Wheeling Central will play in semifinal action on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at either 5 or 7 p.m. The brackets will be seeded once all four teams have qualified.