ASHLAND — She walked with a noticeable limp, but Meshia Curry’s ear-to-ear grin was even more appreciable after Clear Fork’s 5-1 girls soccer win over Richland County rival Ontario in the Division II district title game on a spectacular Saturday afternoon at Community Stadium.
A Lexington transfer who sat out the first half of the season, Curry scored two first-half goals and assisted on another before injuring her foot in the second half as the Colts (15-2-2) steamrolled into next week’s regional tournament. Top-seeded Clear Fork, the fifth-ranked team in Division II in the final Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association state poll, will meet Parma Heights Holy Name in the regional semifinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Brunswick High School. Holy Name (7-4-2) upset state-ranked Bay Village Bay in the Rocky River district finals Thursday.
“It feels really good (to win a district title),” Curry said. “I’ve never had one under my belt. Now I do and it feels nice.”
The junior defender jump-started Clear Fork’s high-octane attack — the Colts have outscored three tournament opponents by a combined score of 23-1 — in the game’s first minute. Her free kick from near midfield found junior All-Ohioan Jordyne Helinski, who headed it past reserve Ontario goal keeper Emma Ruhe for a 1-0 Clear Fork lead with 39:01 to play in the first half.
A freshman, Ruhe was filling in for injured Ontario Keeper Katherine Beech. The junior hurt her right hand in the closing seconds of Ontario’s 1-0 win over Norwalk on Tuesday and had her arm in a sling Saturday.
“We wanted to get one early,” Curry said. “We knew they weren’t going to feel as confident as they would if they had Katherine and we took advantage of that.”
Helinski, who played but was limited in last year’s district title game against Ontario (a 3-0 Warriors win) struck again midway through the first half. She headed a corner kick from Taylor Cook into the net with 21:50 to play in the opening half for a 2-0 Clear Fork lead.
“It’s tough but Emma started two games for us when Katherine was out at the beginning of the year,” Ontario coach Larry Atkinson said. “Was she nervous? Absolutely, and they got a great goal off a free kick.”
The score would remain 2-0 until late in the first half. Curry scored off a corner kick with 4:14 remaining then found the back of the net off a Mahala Brown assist with 2:32 to play before halftime to make it 4-0.
Not Without a Fight: Staring down a 4-0 halftime deficit, Ontario refused to go quietly. Playing with the wind at their backs, the Warriors got on the board with 36:55 to play in the second half on sophomore Brittany McCauley’s goal.
“We battled back in the second half,” Atkinson said. “We had a lot of opportunities in the second half.
“We had the wind more at our backs … and the girls woke up.”
Ontario lost eight seniors off last year’s district championship team, including five starters. There were just three seniors on the tournament roster.
“We’re young and we have some girls who weren’t ready for that type of atmosphere. We’ll learn from it,” Atkinson said. “It’s like we told the girls, this is the first time in six years we’ve gotten silver. We won five straight district championships.
“Nothing to be ashamed about.”
Good Vibrations: Clear Fork coach Brittany Bechtel had a “good feeling” about Saturday’s showdown after the Colts’ final training session Friday. It was reinforced by junior midfielder Taylor Cook.
“She usually comes in a little bit tweaked against Ontario,” Bechtel said. “Yesterday I said, ‘I feel really good,’ and (Cook) said, ‘Coach, I feel really good, too.’ That was my player saying it.
“I can feel whatever, but they are the ones that have to step on the field. To feel like they were feeling it and to come in and see their faces … they were motivated. They were ready and they were going for it all. They weren’t going to leave anything, that’s for sure.”
