Clear Fork Colts beat Ontario Warriors in MOAC girls soccer

BELLVILLE — As Mel Blubaugh sprinted down the field on a wide-open breakaway, she felt a million pounds lift off her shoulders.

She sent home a dagger goal with 32 seconds left to lift her Clear Fork Colts to a 3-0 victory over the Ontario Warriors in a game that traditionally decides the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference championship.

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But it wasn’t just any old win that put the Colts in the driver’s seat of the race for the MOAC title, it was a win that lifted years and years of heartbreak and frustration from losing to Ontario time after time. It was the Colts’ first victory over their Richland County rival since Oct. 3, 2018 snapping a seven-game losing streak in the process.

“It is such a big win and it puts us in a great position to compete for an MOAC championship which we haven’t won since 2018,” Blubaugh said. “It is a huge weight off our shoulders to put them away. It is a great feeling and I am so happy for my coach. She has been coaching us so hard to win a game like this so it is great to get that one for her, too.”

Clear Fork coach Brittany Bechtel was tear-eyed after witnessing her team put up the best effort of the season at the perfect time.

“It has been a long time,” Bechtel said. “After we scored the first goal, I knew we had been in that position before. I think we scored first last year. So, when the second goal went in, the speech at halftime was that is the most dangerous lead to have at half “As the clock rolled down, I was just thinking I was going to cry. It has been so long and so long overdue.”

As the losses piled up to Ontario, it started to become mental. The Colts just couldn’t seem to get over the name on the front of their opponent’s jersey. But, after graduating seven four-year letterwinners from last year’s team, the Colts went to work instilling confidence and belief in their team. As the early season progressed, the confidence kept building with solid play against Madison in the opener and Big Walnut over the weekend. The Colts put it all together on Wednesday night.

“We put a lot of weight in this game because in terms of the MOAC, this has been the deciding game for the last six years,” Bechtel said. “We know we have a lot of work to do to finish off this championship run.”

The Colts got on the board less than two minutes into the match when junior defender Ashtyn Wine sent a high ball off of a free kick toward the goal. The ball hit the turf and took a huge bounce that ended up sending the ball over the Ontario keeper’s head and into the net. The goal was a perfect omen of things to come.

As Wine unleashed the free kick, she had no idea what she had transpired. With the sun creeping down over the west end of the stadium, it blocked her vision of the flight of the ball. She kicked it and looked away from the sun and it wasn’t until her teammates went wild that she knew something good happened.

“I knew I had to come in and make a statement for my team whether that be me scoring or assisting or playing defense,” Wine said. “I think it went in because everyone was rushing into the box to get a touch on the ball and it prevented the goalie from coming out to catch it. So, props to my teammates for that play, too.”

The goal took the air out of the Ontario sidelines and ultimately changed the course of the game early on.

“It killed us,” Ontario coach Larry Atkinson said. “Anytime you give a good team a free goal, it just flips the momentum on its head. We were playing pretty well against them and they were controlling things pretty well and they just sent in a free kick that bounced their way.”

The second goal was just as complicated. Senior forward Addie Blakley sat a cross in front of the net that spun off the keeper’s hands and found the hip of freshman Quinn Stover who finished off the goal with 24:15 left in the first half. The score stayed 2-0 until Blubaugh’s nail.

The Warriors (3-2-1) suffered their second consecutive shutout loss, something that hasn’t happened since Sept. 5 and 9 of 2017 when they lost 3-0 to Ashland and 4-0 to Marysville. In all of 2023, the Warriors had just one game where they didn’t put a ball in the net, the district title match against Madison in a 2-0 loss.

“We are having so much trouble scoring and I don’t know why,” Atkinson said. “We had one of our best practices yesterday just working on shooting for an hour with our strikers.

“We just have to figure out how to score. When we score, our confidence is high and when we don’t we start to second guess everything and we start getting down on each other.”

The Colts (3-3-1) put together their best defensive performance as they zeroed in on sensational juniors Hattie Yugovich and Adi Pittman, who have combined to score 15 goals in six games. Wine was at the head of that defense as well.

“They have two very skilled offensive players so we knew they were going to put a lot of pressure on the goal,” Wine said. “We had a few girls on them the whole time and I stayed back and cleaned things up when they sent it over. We did a great job of locking down the middle.”

The Warriors will try to rebound on Saturday at home against Kenston.

“They came out and wanted it more than we did,” Atkinson said. “They won every ball and challenged everything when we had the ball at our feet. We had our chances at the start of the second half, but things just wouldn’t go our way. It is back to practice to get better and figure things out for the next game. There will be a lot of soul searching going forward.”

The Colts, who were promised a day off of practice if they won on Wednesday, return to action on Saturday at home against Mansfield Senior, but first, they will enjoy the big win.

“Props to Ontario,” Bechtel said. “That is a great team with a storied history within the program. I am not surprised it took us so long to finally get the best of them because it is such a great program. We knew that this is a circled game in the county and the girls came out and did what they do best. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

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