John Bruce, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by Holzer Health System.
KINNIKINNICK — After reaching a program-record 20 wins and hoisting their fifth district championship trophy in only their 13th year as a varsity program, the Wheelersburg Pirates were still hungry for more on Tuesday night.
‘Burg had the task of meeting with Worthington Christian in a Division V regional semifinal at Zane Trace High School.
And what the Pirates (20-1) showed throughout 97 minutes and 46 seconds was pure heart, battling through adversity the entire way.
However, it simply wouldn’t be enough as Worthington Christian’s Rylan Roads scored off a rebound with 12:14 to play in the second extra time period to eliminate the Pirates.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
The first bit of adversity hit the Pirates with 6:50 to play in the opening half when a miscommunication in the back led to a goal for Zoey Chang, giving the Warriors a 1-0 lead going into the break.
“We talked about it at halftime, our backs were against the wall and we knew that,” Wheelersburg head coach Jon Estep said of his team. “We’ve been faced with adversity all year long and we’ve handled it. The fight in these girls and the competitiveness, the drive and want to extend this group as long as they can is unreal.”
Worthington Christian (14-1-5) slightly changed tactics after taking the lead into the half, dropping an attacker back into the midfield to try and contain Southeast District Player of the Year Ella McGraw.
That tactic worked for the majority of the second half, even though the Pirates began to get some forward push out of Ella Hochstetler, Jordan Jolly and Makenzie Mullens — along with McGraw.
The first break of the match for Wheelersburg came with 16:52 to play as a physical play in the box led to a hard foul against McGraw, resulting in a penalty kick. Mullens, a senior, stepped up to take the PK and sent a left-footed rocket into the back of the net to even the score at 1-1.
For the first time in the match, it felt like the Pirates had the momentum, but it did not last long as Worthington Christian quickly answered. Following a counter attack that caught the Pirates on their heels, Evie Hoyt gave the Warriors a 2-1 advantage with 13 minutes to play.
Shortly following the score, the biggest adversity of the match hit the Pirates after a poor reaction from a hard foul committed by the Warriors. After a foul was called on Worthington Christian, a Wheelersburg player retaliated with a push and was sent off with a red card, leaving the Pirates down a player for the remainder of the match.
“Unfortunately, we had to go with the man down for a lot of the second half and the overtime periods,” Estep said of the situation. “But that’s where you saw the fight that they showed when we were 30 seconds away from the season ending in regulation.”
More precisely, the Pirates were 35 seconds away.
The Pirates had a corner kick that was cleared back out over the goal line with less than a minute to play. But Mullens took her time on the second attempt, sending an inswinging ball towards the six-yard box. Junior Breckyn Bivens sprinted from the back side, winning a header that glanced off the bottom of the crossbar and into the net to set off a jubilant celebration.
“That’s the fight that they showed to just barrel through the defense, at that point, just to make sure that ball was going to go in the net and get us to overtime,” Estep said of Bivens’ equalizer. “It’s the character of this team, it’s something that they’ve grown into and something that we feel like we have been able to establish this year.”
That fight continued into the first overtime period, but the Pirates were unable to break through and ultimately, being a player down likely contributed to their downfall.
The hustle goal from Roads to finish off Wheelersburg came off of a rebound, leading to excitement from the Worthington Christian sideline and a stunned silence on the Wheelersburg side.
Even in a losing effort, the Pirates put forth a remarkable season, helping change the trajectory of an already-strong program. The 20 wins are a program-record and it was the first year in which ‘Burg was undefeated and untied in the regular season.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
“They’ve changed in one season the culture of this program moving forward,” Estep said of his team. “The outlook, the commitment and work ethic to want to get to the next level. That doesn’t happen overnight. There’s stuff that we’ll learn from this and that if you don’t take into account how they play in different districts, like the Central District, it’s a different brand of soccer. Can we establish that and find ways to really challenge our girls moving forward to allow us to be more comfortable from the beginning in games like this? We hope that we have turned it in the right direction and there’s a rich tradition here and I think we left a little hungrier moving forward into the seasons to come.”
While the Pirates will return a remarkable group of players — led by McGraw, Bivens, Jolly and Ava Artrip, amongst others — they will still graduate a senior class that has laid the groundwork for many more seasons of success.
Seniors Hochstetler, Mullens, Haley Little, Jaidyn Tilley and Briana Whitley have helped set a standard for what is to be expected.
“This group, they wanted something more and to buy into it and allow us to push them to where they were uncomfortable at times, and to create an environment that is competitive day in and day out, they bought into the whole thing and had some great moments throughout the year,” Estep said. “The two captains [Hochstetler and Mullens], they’re pretty vocal girls and they’ve done a great job of being vocal and helping us change the culture of what we’re looking for.”
“They’ve been a staple of this program for the last four years and I really can’t say enough about how they wanted to buy in and make it so simple. They didn’t fight it, they bought in from day one and it showed until the very last second.”
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