The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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November 8, 2009

Fighting Irish defend AA-A title

By Jim Workman

The old saying goes, “Defense wins championships.”

It was proved beyond any doubt Saturday.

No. 1-ranked Charleston Catholic blanked Weir 3-0 to claim its second straight Class AA-A girls soccer state championship Saturday at Carter Family Stadium in a rematch of the 2008 final.

Catholic capped off a dominant season that saw the Irish score 100 goals while only allowing its opponents eight scores.

The game was the 20th shutout recorded in 25 games.

Catholic did not allow a goal in postseason play — sectionals, regionals or the state tournament — outscoring its opponents 24-0.

“It was 20-0 last year (in the postseason),” Charleston Catholic coach Kevin Nelson recalled. “I remember that. We take pride in that. I think (Irish goal keeper) Diana (Bronikowski) would be the first to tell you that it’s a team statistic. She made a couple of important stops (in the semifinal Friday).

“Not to take anything away from our defense, but I think we did a better job this year in defending from the front,” Nelson added. “Meg (Whalen) and Rachel (Silverman) do such a good job defending the midfield. Our opponents usually only get five or six chances and we normally get 20 chances. You have to like those odds.”

After a scoreless first half, the Irish finally got on the scoreboard with an Emily Blake goal just four minutes into the second half, finishing from an assist from Rachel Silverman.

Donovan Reed took a pass from Blake with 19:04 left and headed in a goal to make it 2-0 Catholic.

Victoria Thomas boosted the Irish advantage to 3-0, finding the net from yet another Silverman assist.

The Irish (20-1-4) are ranked No. 15 in the latest National Soccer Coaches of America Region 4 poll.

Weir (16-4-3) ended its season in Beckley much like last season.

“We’re proud of the fact that we were here again,” Red Riders coach Chris LeFever said. “Charleston Catholic brought a whole lot of pressure. We have a lot of history with them. We just didn’t get a whole lot of (scoring) opportunities.”

The Red Riders had similar outstanding defensive statistics.

“We gave up 14 goals in 23 games this season,” LeFever said. “All through postseason we didn’t give up a goal until today. We gave it our all, though. I couldn’t ask for more.”

With only three seniors on its roster, Charleston Catholic can look forward to three-peat talk next season. But there’s still time to savor this one, according to Nelson.

“A couple of people have already asked me which (championship) is sweeter,” he said. “It’s different, because there’s different obstacles you have to overcome each year. To me, in a lot of ways, this one is more gratifying than last year. First of all, because I just think it’s hard to repeat. Secondly, we had a lot of players fighting through illness: Amanda (Johns), Meg (Whalen) and Victoria (Thomas) all played sick last week in the regionals and Emily (Blake) and Rachel (Silverman) played sick today. That makes it more gratifying.”

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