The 2023 soccer season has come to a close and it is now win or go home for area squads on the pitch.
The Class AAA Region 3, Section 2 tournament for both the boys and girls will start play Tuesday evening.
The boys seeding, one through four, is Beckley, Greenbrier East, Princeton and Oak Hill. On the girls side, Oak Hill is the top seed followed by Beckley, Greenbrier East and Princeton.
Both opening matches for the Flying Eagles will be played at Paul Cline Stadium. The girls game against the Spartans will start at 6 p.m., while the boys will follow at approximately 8 p.m. against the Red Devils.
The defending AAA state champion Spartan boys will open their postseason run at home against the Tigers at 7 p.m. in Fairlea. The Lady Red Devils will host the Lady Tigers also at 7 p.m.
The Beckley boys (13-3-2) own regular season wins over all three sectional opponents and have recorded 13 clean sheets on the season with Bryson Doss between the posts.
Losses for the No. 7 ranked Flying Eagles have been to No. 1 ranked George Washington, No. 2 ranked Wheeling Park on the road and No. 6 Morgantown in the opening contest of the season.
A balanced offense and a strong defense have highlighted the season for Beckley. Coby Dillon leads the attack in the scoring third, but the Flying Eagles also have scoring threats in Aiden Bell, Tyler Snyder and Tyler Randolph. Ishmael Fayiah and Michael Fayaih add more punch for a team that has had 17 different players score this season.
The Spartans (9-6-3) have played a tough schedule, but there has been some frustration for East head coach Lucas Lemine this year after taking a solid hit from graduation last year.
“We are still so inconsistent. The last three weeks we have played a heck of a lot better. The coaches just do not know who is going to show each day and that has been our biggest struggle all season,” Lemine said. “We have noticed that if we have competitive edge in practice and kids are getting after it, things are not only good in practice, it follows over to games. We had a good practice Saturday, so I am anxious to see how it goes (Monday).”
Dawson Trusty and Ian Gadd have been solid players over their career and East has one of the top keepers in the state in senior Joe Cochran.
While the Spartans and the Flying Eagles are considered the favorites Tuesday, over the years, this section has always provided some surprises.
“Princeton is playing a lot better and the same with Oak Hill,” Lemine said. “We have to play Princeton first and Beckley has to play Oak Hill first. I give a lot of credit to the other coaches. This section has been (historically) really, really difficult.”
Princeton (10-9-1) enters postseason play with seven wins in its last nine matches. The two losses were to George Washington and to No. 15 Winfield on the road. The Generals are the third highest ranked Class AA-A team in the state.
The Tigers also own a win over No. 12 Charleston Catholic during that span of matches.
Oak Hill (8-6-3) may be considered a decided underdog against Beckley, but Flying Eagles head coach Steve Laraba has seen his team play spoiler before and he takes no team lightly in the postseason.
“We have talked with these guys (and explained) you never know what is going to happen. A couple years ago we were the three (seed) and went to (Greenbrier) East,” Laraba explained after Saturday’s win over Huntington. “They had beat us soundly in the regular season and we were able to get out with a win. Any game that we have this week, we have the utmost focus on. You have to take every game very, very seriously.”
David Kidd is leading scorer for the Red Devils with 17 goals on the season.
On the girls side, the tournament is wide open.
The Red Devils have two wins each over Princeton and Greenbrier East, but have split the two matches with Beckley.
Oak Hill (10-6-2) beat the Flying Eagles 2-1 in Beckley early in the season, but dropped the home contest 2-0 in late September.
“We scheduled things where we would have some time off at the end of the season. We wanted to try and get healthy from all the little nagging injuries,” Oak Hill head coach Gerald Wilburn said. “We ended on a pretty good note though against Nitro and Sissonville, two really tough teams. We are playing pretty good soccer here at the end. I feel like we are peaking at the right time.”
The Red Devils have advanced to the sectional final the last two seasons, only to fall to Beckley. Both years Oak Hill had to win grueling sectional openers against Greenbrier East.
“It is definitely one game at a time for us, but I am just glad to not be in that (No. 2 seed versus No. 3 seed) game,” Wilburn said. “The last couple of years that took a lot out of us. East is a big, physical, well-coached team. They can take a lot out of you. We still have to take care of business for sure.”
Sophomore Jada Wilburn leads the Red Devils in scoring with 19 goals, along with junior Taylor Sizemore (9 goals) and Jada Babkirk. Freshman Gracie Bennet has also been a nice surprise for Oak Hill.
The Red Devils have relied strongly on their defense this year led by a senior-heavy back line.
“Our defense has been strong. They don’t really get the credit they deserve. Sam Dean is the team captain and she holds everything together back there,” Wilburn said. “The back line has played together a long time and they trust each other. Our keeper, Taylor Suttle has been playing well too.”
The record for the two-time defending sectional champion Flying Eagles may not knock you over, but a deeper look shows ladies from Beckley are playing their best soccer at just the right time.
Over the last eight games, the Flying Eagles have six wins. The stretch includes the Oak Hill win with the two setbacks coming to No. 4 Wheeling Park Saturday and a 1-0 thriller against No. 14 George Washington.
Seniors Ama Ackon-Annan and Vai Simmons give Beckley two dynamic strikers. Fellow seniors Cassidy Agnor, Meredith Hall and Taylor Scott have solid postseason experience as well.
“I think the quick attack is really key for us. We have to be on our toes and it has to come from the back all the way through,” Agnor said after Saturday’s Wheeling Par match. “We can’t just depend on a few people to do the work. The whole team has to do the work.”
Greenbrier East (8-7-2) is also playing well heading into Tuesday’s clash with Beckley. After dropping a 4-0 decision earlier in the season, the Spartans played the Flying Eagles to a 0-0 draw in mid-September.
East is 4-2-1 since the second Beckley match with both losses coming to Oak Hill and George Washington in 1-nil decisions.
Sectional finals will be played Thursday night with times and locations being determined after the opening round Tuesday night.
