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Hernes lifts Big Red to district crown

Steubenville wins in OT for first district title since 2016

By ANDREW GRIMM 4 min read

ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Eskil Hernes may only have one season to be part of Big Red's boys soccer program, but he certainly made his mark on it. 

Hernes, a junior foreign exchange student from Norway, made sure he will long be remembered by the Big Red faithful when got his foot on a loose ball close to the goal with 9:09 left in the first overtime, lifting Steubenville to a 2-1 win over Maysville Saturday in the Division II, East District Championship at Red Devil Stadium. 

"I actually told him before we took the field in overtime, 'You came all the way from Norway to win a game like this,' and he did," Big Red head coach Greg Bowers said. "It was a beautiful goal." 

The district title is the first for Big Red since 2016. Now 15-2-2, Steubenville will make a return to the regional tournament when it takes on John Glenn Wednesday at West Muskingum High School. 

"We're going to cherish this," Bowers said. "We won a couple in a row, then we went on a drought so we're going to enjoy this one. 

"We believed early in the year this team could do it, we looked strong when we started scrimmaging and have some good, young kids that developed over the course of the season. We started putting some pieces together and knew we could do it."

The winning goal was set up by a shot attempt from Anthony Vendetti, who also scored Big Red's first goal back in the opening half and was all over the field. 

"Anthony is a great player, he's a district player of the year for a reason," Bowers said. "He just controls the game and his effort is second to none."

Big Red had dominated possession throughout the match, but could not seem to get rewarded for it prior to Hernes' magic moment. 

Steubenville had a 30-12 advantage in shot attempts and 12-6 advantage in shots on target. 

"It's frustrating to watch as a coach and I'm sure it's frustrating for the players (when chances aren't going in), but we just have to stay the course and stay calm," Bowers said. 

It was the first one on target in overtime that ended up being the difference. 

"We played in a lot of close games this year and it's only made us stronger," Bowers said. "We told them to keep pushing and it's going to work out one of these times."

Maysville opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Drew Daniels connected on a header off a corner kick from Cam Parker on one of just two shots on target by the Panthers in the half. 

After a lot of pressure, Big Red broke through to even the score when Vendetti answered in the 24th minute on a free kick after a pair of yellow cards on Maysville, rifling a shot past defenders and in through traffic. 

Maysville goalie Shepp Cosgrove argued he was bumped into, but the officials appeared to have deemed contact happened after the goal. 

It appeared Big Red had taken the lead when Matt Loot's corner kick sailed into the net early in the second half, but the goal was disallowed without much explanation. 

Despite several more chances by both sides as the half wound down, Cosgrove (10 saves) and Big Red's JP Walsh (five saves) held serve and kept the game tied through the of regulation. 

Hernes, though, who had missed a couple good looks and lost the ball on a couple good runs when he appeared to be breaking for a chance, was not going to be denied when given a chance when it mattered most. 

The start time for Wednesday's regional semifinal is set for 6 p.m.

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