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STEUBENVILLE – The postseason is about to begin.
The local Ohio girls’ soccer teams learned their postseason fate when the tournament draw was held Sunday afternoon.
Locally, Big Red will be competing in Division III, Indian Creek and Harrison Central will be competing in Division IV and Catholic Central and Edison will be competing in Division V. All five teams will be playing in Eastern District tournaments.
Eight teams will be competing in Division V. In the tournament, there will be four sectional co-finals, two district semifinals and one district final. The sectional co-finals will be held Oct. 21, the district semifinals will be held Oct. 26 and the district final is set for Oct. 28.
The sectional co-finals and the district semifinals will be played on the home field of the higher-seeded teams, while the district final will be played at a neutral site.
The Crusaders (9-5-1) are the No. 2 seed in Division V, while the Wildcats (4-12) are the No. 7 seed.
“It is getting voted to a No. 2 seed,” Catholic Central head coach Jonathan Hoover said. “It puts in a position to play at home in the quarterfinals and again of we make it through to the semifinals.”
Catholic Central will play Edison in a sectional co-final at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday down at the Tony Recinella Soccer Field. The game will be played at 4:30 instead of the normal 6:30 due to Catholic Central’s field not having lights. The two Jefferson County rivals did not play each other during the regular season.
“We didn’t play Edison during the season so this will be our first look at them,” Hoover said. “We have to play good soccer and find a way to advance to the next round of the playoffs.”
The winner of that game will take on the winner of the game between No. 3 seed Fairless and No. 5 seed Ridgewood.
On the top half of the bracket, No. 1 seed Bishop Rosecrans will take on No. 8 seed Union Local in a sectional co-final with the winner of that game taking on the winner of the game between No. 4 seed Hiland and No. 6 seed Shenandoah.
During the regular season, the Bishops defeated the Crusaders, 4-1, Aug. 31 on the road, while the Crusaders toppled the Generals, 5-0, Sept. 10 in game that was also played at home. Meanwhile, the Generals shut out the Wildcats, 5-0, Sept. 26 at home, while the Wildcats shut out the Jets, 5-0, last Tuesday at home out at the Edison Unified Sports Complex.
The Redskins and the Huskies will be competing in the East 1 District in Division IV. Seven teams will be taking part in the tournament. There will be three sectional co-finals, two district semifinals and one district final. The first two rounds will be played at the higher-seeded teams home field. The sectional co-finals are scheduled to be played at 6:30 p.m. Monday with the district semifinals slated to be played Oct. 26. The district final is set to be played Oct. 28.
The Redskins (7-11) are the No. 11 seed in the tournament, while the Huskies (4-11) are the No. 14 seed.
In a sectional co-final, No. 1 seed St. Clairsville (15-2) will take on Harrison Central at home down at Red Devil Stadium with the winner of that game taking on Indian Creek in the district semifinals. The game between the Red Devils and the Huskies is a rematch of a regular season game played Sept. 28 at Harrison Central out at Wagner Field. St. Clairsville won that game, 11-0. The girls from Belmont County took down Indian Creek, 8-0, Sept. 3 at home. Indian Creek defeated Harrison Central, 7-1, Aug. 27 at home at Kettlewell Stadium.
On the lower side of the bracket, No. 8 seed Cambridge will take on No. 9 seed Sandy Valley in a sectional co-final with the winner of that game slated to take on the winner of the game between No. 3 seed Coshocton and No. 12 seed Morgan.
Cambridge defeated Indian Creek, 3-2, Sept. 17 on the road, while the Bobcats blanked the Huskies, 12-0, Sept. 3 on the road.
Seven teams will also be competing on the East 2 side of the bracket.
In a sectional co-final, No. 7 seed River View will be taking on No. 10 seed Minerva with the winner of that game scheduled to play No. 4 seed West Holmes in the district semifinals.
Also, No. 2 seed Tuscarawas Valley is scheduled to take on No. 13 seed East Liverpool in a sectional co-final with the winner of that game taking on the winner of the game featuring No. 5 seed Philo and No. 6 seed West Muskingum.
Nine teams will be competing in the Division III tournament. There will be one sectional semifinal, four sectional co-finals, two district semifinals and finally one district final. The sectional semifinal will be played Monday, the sectional co-finals will be played Wednesday with the district semifinals slated for Oct. 26. The district final is set to be played Oct. 28. The first three rounds will all be played at the higher-seeded team’s home field.
Big Red (9-6-2) is the No. 3 seed in the tournament.
In the sectional semifinal, No. 5 seed Zanesville will take on No. 7 seed Carrollton. The winner of that game will take on No. 4 seed Dover in the sectional co-finals. The winner of the game featuring Dover will play in the district semifinals against the winner of the sectional co-final between No. 2 seed Tri-Valley and No. 8 seed Maysville.
On the lower side of the bracket, Big Red will take on No. 6 seed John Glenn at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at home om Reno Saccoccia Field inside historic Harding Stadium. The game will be a rematch from a game played Saturday afternoon out at New Concord. Big Red came out on top in that one, 2-0.
The winner of the Big Red game will take on the winner of the game between No. 1 seed Beaver Local and No. 9 seed New Philadelphia in the district semifinals.
The Beavers defeated Big Red twice during the season with both games being played at Beaver Local. Beaver Local won the first one, 3-1, Sept. 15 before winning the second, 4-3, Sept. 21. That game was an OVAC Class 5A Tournament Semifinal. Big Red and the Crimson Tornadoes played to a scoreless draw in the season opener Aug. 20 at Dover.