Big Red girls make program history with district championship win
Steubenville tops St. Clairsville, punches ticket to regional tournament
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WINTERSVILLE -- Steubenville High School owns one of the richest athletic traditions in not only the Ohio Valley, but across the entire state of Ohio.
It added another chapter Thursday evening at Kettlewell Memorial Stadium.
For the first time in school history, the Big Red girls soccer team is headed for the 'Sweet 16.'
Steubenville punched its ticket to the regional tournament by virtue of denying top-seeded St. Clairsville a repeat berth in the regional with a 5-2 victory at Indian Creek High School.
"This really means a lot to these girls," Steubenville head coach Annie Cutri said. "It means a lot for the girls to show they have pride in their school and it's big to show that (Steubenville) girls soccer is becoming a force to be reckoned with."
Big Red will have to wait until Saturday to find out its next opponent and the site for the game. They will play the winner of Granville and Columbus Bexley.
While Cutri knows the games only continue to get tougher, she wanted her girls to to soak up Thursday night as a crowd of upwards of 300 people made the short trip from Steubenville.
"We're playing teams from the Columbus area and both are very, very good, so we have a lot of work to do before next week," Cutri said.
While Big Red is making plans for the regional, St. Clairsville is closing the book on yet another outstanding season. It finished 14-3-3, which is a single-season record for wins and its departing seniors are the winningest class in program history.
"It's hard to be upset when you consider everything these kids have accomplished," St. C. head coach Wes Stoner said. "The girls (crying) got me upset, but honestly, this was a (season) in which we were supposed to be a little bit down, but we had a lot of girls step up, they worked hard and improved. They should be proud of themselves for ending up (in the district final)."
Steubenville, which scored late to force a tie with St. Clairsville during their regular-season meeting, got the scoring started this time around.
After the Red Devils were called for a handball in the box, Big Red senior Libby Saccoccia blasted a penalty kick to the back of the net just 4:25 into the match.
The score remained that way for more than 28 minutes. The Red Devils got the equalizer when senior Emily Thompson -- an All-Ohioan in the pole vault -- worked her away around and through the Steubenville defense before ripping a shot past the keeper.
St. Clairsville, however, couldn't sustain the momentum. The game remained knotted for less than five minutes before Rylee Hubbard scored on a rebound chance in front of the net, making it 2-1.
"Bouncing back after they tied the game was huge for us," Cutri said. "That's been an Achilles heel for us. If we get down, we're sometimes too hard on ourselves and don't always bounce back, but our girls kept their heads in the game and once we got the goal it shifted for us."
St. Clairsville, meanwhile, felt as if it let some goal-scoring chances slip past in the first half.
"Give Steubenville credit because when we tied it up, they didn't slow down," Stoner said. "We created some good (scoring) chances and we missed on them, but they made theirs. That's the way it goes sometimes."
Less than two minutes into the second half, Steubenville struck again. Hailey Neeley tallied, pushing it to a 3-1 game.
St. Clairsville, however, didn't go away quietly. Taking advantage of a call inside the box, the Devils went to Megan Malin for a penalty kick and she promptly buried it in the back of the net, making it 3-2 with still more than 10 minutes to play.
Big Red never flinched. Hubbard put forth an incredible individual effort to get free before she unleashed a missile of a shot that the St. C. keeper had basically no chance to stop. Then 48 seconds later, Chloe Petrelle knocked home the final tally of the match.
"The girls have been working all season for this and these eight seniors didn't want this to be their last game," Cutri said. "The girls really worked well together."
Along with its fine offensive showing, Steubenville received impressive keeper play from senior Elexis Martin, who was put in some pressure situations by the Red Devils. She made a brilliant save on a free kick from about the 40-yard line by Makenna Booth. The shot was perfectly on line and Martin, at the last instance, deflected it away.