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Oak Glen Golden Bears hang on at Harrison Central

SCIO — Harrison Central the first and fifth goals in its girls’ soccer match with visiting Oak Glen Saturday morning on Dr. James Z. Scott Memorial Field. However, the Golden Bears netted the three in between for a 3-2 victory.

With the victory, Oak Glen, the two-time defending OVAC Cup champions, remained perfect in three starts. Harrison Central, meanwhile, dropped to 1-3.

“We lost seven seniors, but we lucked out in that we had nine incoming freshman,” Oak Glen head coach Jessie Ferrari explained. “We still looking strong this year, so we’re hoping that the freshmen will step up and help us maintain our level of play.”

Junior Julia Rose gave the hosts a 1-0 lead in the first half off an assist by Lexi Yoho. They wouldn’t find the net again until late in the contest when Yoho blasted a left-footed laser along the natural grass surface that just eluded the fingers of Oak Glen’s diving Dominica Price.

In between, Oak Glen received net-finders from Kennedy Graves and Abigail Myers in the first half to take a 2-1 lead into the break.

“We scored first but then we kind of stood around flat-footed and they outhustled us,” Harrison Central head coach Scott Ward said. “They wanted the game more than we did and they showed it on the scoreboard at the end of the match.”

Oak Glen added to its margin with 14:01 left to play when Natalie Szpyrka’s spinning shot just slipped inside the post to the right of Harrison Central goalkeeper Ashley Mencer for 3-1 advantage.

However, to their credit, the Huskies never gave up and continued to push forward which resulted in Yoho’s goal with 1:44 remaining.

“We run in spurts and I’m still trying to find out how to get the to play continuously for 80 minutes,” Ward added. “The flat-footedness really hurts us from our offense to our defense, but when we decide we want to play, we’re a very potent team. When we get in that mode of watching the game instead of participating in it, that hurts us tremendously.”

Notching assists for Oak Glen were Desi Davis, Meagan Dawson and Jillian Williams. Price recorded 14 saves.

“Dominica is a veteran keeper for us. She had 10 shutouts last year,” Ferrari said. “She does a really great job.”

Mencer finished with 11 saves.

Harrison Central welcomes St. Clairsville Tuesday night. Oak Glen hosts Edison on Monday.

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