Gallery by Heather Belcher
Following a win over Princeton two weeks back, Beckley knocked off Greenbrier East one week ago to secure the No. 1 seed in Region 3, Section 2 play in October.
Thursday night the Flying Eagles looked to make it a clean sweep of sectional foes when it welcomed Oak Hill to Carter Family Field.
Beckley broke out the brooms scoring a pair of goals in each half to take a 4-nil win over the Red Devils.
“I felt like we eventually played pretty good tonight. I think in the first half you could tell we hadn’t played in a week,” Beckley head coach Steve Laraba said. “We still scored a couple of nice goals (in the first half). We talked about some stuff at halftime that we needed to improve on and show a little more quality on the ball. Once we got that going, we were back on pace.”
Beckley scored quickly on a Tyler to Tyler combo in the third minute of play. Tyler Radford found the back of the net off an assist from Tyler Snyder.
After missing on an earlier shot, Coby Dillon doubled the Flying Eagle advantage thanks to a nice play from freshman Hagen Hall in the 21st minute.
“Even before the first goal tonight, I don’t know how Coby’s left-footed shot he had coming across his body didn’t go in,” Laraba said. “We created some other good chances in the first half, but we created better chances in the second half. Their keeper made some great saves and we missed a couple.”
Making a living off of its defense in the early part of the season, Beckley has now added some offensive firepower to its arsenal as the year has progressed.
“It is good. The fact that we are starting to figure some things out and getting in a rhythm is very promising,” Laraba said.
Dillon again found the back of the net in the 61st minute, assisted by Ayden Stafford. Two minutes later it was Jackson Gray with some nice foot work for the four goal advantage.
Beckley tallied 11 shots on goal Thursday and recorded its eighth clean sheet of the season aided by three saves from sophomore Bryson Doss.
The Flying Eagle keeper’s most dramatic save came on a free kick in the second half which was taken just outside the box and curled up top inside the far post.
“That was a heck of a save he made,” Laraba said. “We need to cut out the mistake we made to get to that point. That is something I will remember when I look at the film, but he made a great save. He got that high arm to it.”
Beckley (8-1-2) now has three consecutive road games on the slate, starting with a showdown at Wheeling Park Saturday in a meeting of top-four teams.
“Going to Wheeling is going to be a test. They are a very good team, ranked No. 3 now,” Laraba said. “They were at the state tournament last year, so it will be a big test.”
The Flying Eagles will be on the road at St. Albans next Thursday before playing Spring Valley the following Saturday.
