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MINFORD — Bella Miller must’ve eaten her Wheaties on Thursday morning.
In a winner-take-all Southern Ohio Conference championship game, Wheelersburg’s forward and senior leader scored not one, not two, but three first half goals.
That was the foundation of a 4-2 win at Minford — one that put the Pirates (12-4-1, 5-0-1 SOC) back on top of the SOC and one that knocked the Falcons off the conference mount in the process.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
“The game plan was to attack [Minford] from the outside and I thought we had two or three excellent crosses to the back post for Bella,” Wheelersburg coach Kevin Powell said. “She made the runs when she needed to. One thing we talked about before the game was getting out on them fast and the girls executed the game plan great. We were aiming to start quickly.”
The victory was a long time coming.
Way back on Oct. 13, 2022, Minford handed Wheelersburg a 7-2 loss on its home turf, winning the outright SOC title going away.
That loss, and a 1-1 tie earlier this season, was on the Pirates’ mindsets.
Retribution has now been paid.
“It just means a lot,” Miller said. “[The] SOC [title] is what we’ve been working for. SOC means a lot more than everybody thinks. To us, it’s everything. There’s been a lot of hard work. As a team, we’ve just improved ten times more.”
Miller started the night’s scoring at the 25:03 mark in the first half.
Kenzie Piguet found her teammate from the left side of the goal, where Miller headed a ball past the keeper for a 1-0 lead.
PHOTOS: Images from Wheelersburg’s win over Minford
With 13:42 left, Miller repeated the cycle. This time, it came off an assist from Krista Williams to give ‘Burg a 2-0 lead — a dream start.
Minford (9-5-2, 4-1-1 SOC) answered with 10:17 to go. Ava Cronin fed a streaking Lexi Conkel in the center of the pitch, who did the rest of the work to cut the deficit in half.
But Miller was having none of it. She completed her first half hat trick, thanks to an assist from Ella Hochstetler, with 4:34 to play for a 3-1 lead.
“Hat trick in the biggest game of our season,” Powell said. “Bella stepped up and that’s what offensive captains do.”
The backbreaker came with 36:34 remaining in the second half. That’s when Wheelersburg’s Mia Vastine took possession near midfield and carried it all the way to the goal before making it a 4-1 score.
Conkel scored again on a penalty kick after a foul was called inside the box but it was much too little, much too late.
“I feel like the main thing that makes our defense so successful is definitely communication,” Wheelersburg goalkeeper Amber Blevins said. “Every ball that comes through, I have to talk and we have to decided who’s going to [defend] the ball. I think tonight, our communication helped us seal the win.”
Both teams will now look towards the postseason.
The Falcons, a No. 3 seed, will host Peebles in a Division III sectional final on Oct. 18 while the Pirates, a No. 4 seed, host Northwest.
“I think [the win] makes our team come together more,” Blevins said. “We have down times, obviously, when we’re not playing as good. But I feel like tonight, we played a very good game as a collective team. Taking that energy, I think we could go really far in the tournament.”
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