Lady Pirates onto districts

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WHEELERSBURG — Over their postseason tournament journey, the Wheelersburg Lady Pirates will have seen familiar foes.

Their 6-0 win over Zane Trace on Wednesday in a Division III sectional final comes less than two weeks after ‘Burg earned a 5-1 win over the Lady Pioneers on Oct. 8.

It’s ‘Burg’s third-straight sectional title, a streak that was restarted in 2020 following a brief move while competing as a D-II program.

The win gives the Lady Pirates (9-5-2) their

“Appreciative of the clean sheet. We’ve struggled at times at keeping that at zero, that’s something we pride ourselves on,” Wheelersburg coach Todd Jarvis said, after the game. “I felt we played freely, it’s tournament time so you win and move on or lose and go home. The ladies from Zane Trace played well, they’ve got some girls who can play. Tonight was just our night.”

‘Burg junior Bella Miller had a trio of goals in the win — two to book-end the first half and another in the second half which put her Pirates ahead 5-0.

Senior Annie Coriell scored with 9:17 remaining in the first half to push their lead to 2-0. Fellow senior Jocelyn Tilley scored just six minutes into the second half at the 34:21 mark — her 14th goal of the season.

Addison Mullins scored her first goal of the season with 16:40 left in the game, putting ‘Burg ahead 6-0 for good.

Amber Blevins, Wheelersburg’s goalkeeper, and the Lady Pirate defense pitched the shutout on the defensive end for their fourth shutout victory of the season and first since Sept. 17.

“Our seniors played extraordinarily well tonight. This is the last time they’ll put their boots on as a Lady Pirate here at home,” Jarvis said. “Proud of the way we finished — we ran the midfield a little better tonight.”

A win at the next stage will put the Lady Pirates in the program’s third-straight district final. However, another familiar opponent stands in the way.

The No. 2-seed in the D-III Southeast District rankings, Minford, will face Wheelersburg in the district semifinals on Monday, Oct. 24.

The Lady Falcons won the Southern Ohio Conference championship with a 7-2 victory at Ed Miller Stadium on Oct. 13. A 2-1 Minford win back on Sept. 13 made for a season-sweep of the Lady Pirates.

Both team’s records are 0-0 now that it’s tournament time, though, as Jarvis says his group will be ready for a third meeting with Minford.

“We don’t know who’s next yet, we just know it’s Monday. We’ll begin to prep for whatever Monday looks like — our girls will be ready.”

First touch between Minford and Wheelersburg is set for 6 p.m. on Oct. 24 at Northwest High School.

Reach Jacob Smith at (740) 370-0713 ext. 1930, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @JacobSmithPDT © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved

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