Gallery by Heather Belcher
Beckley – In a game that featured eight cards, four of them red, Charleston Catholic defeated Point Pleasant 4-3 in overtime to claim the Class AA/A state title Saturday in Beckley.
Sully Groom, who scored the first goal of the game for the Irish, ended the contest four minutes into the first overtime with a golden goal from the right side.
“It can’t end any better than this,” Catholic head coach Joe Johns said. “It really can’t. Hats off to Point Pleasant. They didn’t pack it in, they didn’t give up. They played the whole way through and they’ve got a good side. They deserve to be here and they didn’t roll over when we went up 2-0 and then 3-1. They kept battling and kept coming after us and you can’t ask for anything better than that in a final.”
Groom opened the scoring in the 38th minute when he took advantage of the keeper’s depth, scooting the ball past the defender to give the Irish a lead heading into the break. Six minutes out of the intermission Billy Ford made it 2-0 but a goal from Ian Wood, his first of the season, slashed the deficit.
It took just five minutes for an answer with the Irish firing back on a free kick courtesy of Sam Delgra.
With Catholic up 3-1 and under 10 minutes left in regulation, the Big Blacks capitalized on two free kicks, scoring in the 73rd and 79th minutes.
After a miss on the first free kick, Wood scored on the ricochet to cut the deficit back to a goal. Nick Cichon-Ledderhose nailed the equalizer with just over a minute left, forcing overtime.
That was where Groom capped it in spectacular fashion to clinch the title.
“He embodies it and the rest of our captain embody it – that winning mentality,” Johns said of Groom. “Our program has really established that and we hope to keep that up moving forward. It’s setting the standard for what our program’s about.”
