John Bruce, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
KINNIKINNICK — All season, North Adams has looked like a team of destiny.
On Saturday, they fulfilled that prophecy.
The Green Devils handed Valley a 3-1 loss in a Division V district championship at Zane Trace High School and, with it, claimed the program’s first-ever district crown while pushing the single-season win record even further to 17.
“This feels really good,” North Adams’ Beau Hesler said. “We’ve been close a couple of times. Last year we made the district championship and went to penalty kicks, but didn’t come out on top. We kept that with us and got it done tonight. It feels awesome.”
CREDIT: Raymond Gleadle/SOSA
Three different players scored for North Adams to give the Green Devils a 3-0 advantage before their defense was able to withstand a massive offensive push from the Indians over the final 30 minutes of the contest.
North Adams (17-2-1) entered the contest with three straight losses in the district title game. Meanwhile, Valley had won its last district championship in 1998, when it won a regional title as well.
For Valley, they were unsuccessful in their previous two chances at returning to the Sweet 16.
So needless to say, something had to give.
With history on the line, it would have made sense for one, or both teams to play tight. But the game started wide open with both teams pushing forward aggressively as they looked for the icebreaking goal.
North Adams’ Thad Moore came up with a key early save, while Valley’s Hunter Sparks did the same for the Indians. After the initial offensive push, Daulton Pence and the North Adams’ defense started to put their stamp on the game.
“[Valley] is a big possession team, so we wanted to get them out,” Pence said. “Pressure them, stay close, stay compact and play with a lot of energy.”
With the defensive pressure that the Green Devils began to enact, it provided some additional possession and counterattack chances on the offensive side.
PHOTOS: Images from North Adams’ district title win over South Webster
Ultimately, that paid off when Beau Hesler was able to find Colin Tolle in the middle of the box, where the senior soundly headed the ball into the side netting at the 15:58 mark of the half to make it 1-0.
In soccer, there are few times in the match that are incredibly important — the start of each half and the first few minutes after a goal is scored are amongst them.
North Adams’ Jaydon Reckers made sure to take advantage of those first minutes after a goal as the junior added to the Green Devils’ lead with a goal in the box at the 12:25 mark.
Reckers took a pass with his back to the goal, faked to his right before spinning with a left-footed shot to beat the keeper for a beautiful finish, bringing the NA crowd to their feet.
“Colin finished the first goal off with a header,” Hesler said. “Set the tone early. Big energy goal. We kept the lead from there. Jaydon’s came up really big for us this year. The second goal at the end of the first half, it really lifted us up even more. Just gave us even more energy and got the crowd going. I’ve never seen a crowd for us that big at a soccer game and after each goal, it really got us going. It made us want to make them proud.”
With the teams coming out of the half, those opening minutes would be vital for both teams.
For Valley (13-4-3), it gave the Indians a chance to get back into the match while the Green Devils just had to be solid defensively. After withstanding the early push in the second half, one of the heroes for the Green Devils in their semifinal win over Minford stepped up one more time.
After a misplay by Valley in the box, Jaxson Baldwin outhustled every one to the ball to get a solid touch before placing a right-footed shot into the back of the net with 33:06 to play, furthering the lead to 3-0.
“[Baldwin] is so valuable for us,” Pence said. “We can put him anywhere on the field. Today he was up top and back on defense. He does everything for us. He’s a huge part of our team.”
Valley could have rolled over and quit, but if you expected that, you don’t know the Indians.
They answered almost immediately on a score from Lex Logan with 32:34 to play after a touch to him on a corner kick. The senior bent in the shot from a nearly impossible angle to give the Indians some life and cut the deficit to two goals.
The Indians increased their offensive push, looking to take advantage of the speed and skill of Christian Copen and Caysen Zieber, but NA’s defense stood tall time after time, forcing shots to come from further and further out.
On those long attempts, Moore calmly collected each one to maintain the comfortable two-goal advantage. He finished the night with seven saves.
“He’s a big energy for us,” Pence said of Moore. “He’s learned everything so quickly [as a first year varsity goalie]. We know he’s there for us.”
The festivities began to get a bit more spirited down the stretch as it became obvious that the Green Devils were going to take home the title, leading to an extended stoppage.
At that point, Pence and Tyler Richendollar got the North Adams defense together for one more meeting before looking to shut down the Indians for the final three minutes of play.
“It was important for us to get together and for us to lock in to make sure we weren’t thinking about after,” Pence said.
In the win, the Green Devils were able to score their three goals without either of their top two scorers — Tristan Young and Preston Call — being involved in any, just showing the overall depth of their offensive attack.
Tolle also added an assist to go with his goal, while Hesler and Ian Raines added assists as well.
While Valley’s season comes to a close, North Adams advances to a Division V regional semifinal at 7 p.m., Wednesday at Jackson’s Alumni Stadium. The Devils will take on South Webster, a 4-0 winner over Lynchburg-Clay.
The unique feature of this season’s regional tournament is that none of the four programs — North Adams, South Webster, Fairbanks and Berlin Hiland — have ever made an appearance in the Final 4.
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