Berlin ends McConnellsburg's girls soccer season

No. 6 seed McConnellsburg gave No. 2 seed Berlin all it could handle Monday afternoon in a District 5 Class 1A girls soccer semifinal.

But a 2-0 lead at halftime by the Mountaineers proved a bit too much for the Spartans to overcome and McConnellsburg saw its season end with a 2-1 defeat.

"We made a couple of miscues in the first half that came back to bite us," Spartan coach Chris Mellott said. "In the second half we took the game to them, but we just ran out of time at the end."

Lexi Wilt scored the second goal for the Mountaineers and assisted on a goal by Lauren Lambert for the first goal. McKenzi Garlock notched the lone goal for McConnellsburg, which finished 11-8-1. Goalkeeper Kellyn Perry made 10 saves.

The Spartans got close to tying the game up when Izzy Keefer hit a shot off the post with about 12 minutes left. Later, Emma Ott hit a free kick across the goal mouth, but, Mellott said, "We couldn't get anybody in front of the goal to redirect it."

For a young team that loses only two senior starters (Garlock and defender Savannah Kerlin), Mellott was pleased with how the Spartans ended the season.

"I think we're playing our best soccer now," he said. "It's been a playoff-like atmosphere for the last couple of weeks because we were pushing so hard to get home field advantage. And I thought the girls handled the pressure well."