By JIM WALKER

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

This is one habit the St. Joseph Flyers have no intention of trying to kick.

The Flyers beat the Lucasville Valley Indians 3-1 on Wednesday to clinch the Southern Ohio Conference-1 soccer championship.

St. Joseph has now won the SOC-1 title outright for the second straight year and they have now won 4 of the past 6 titles.

“We were picked to finish second in the league. However, we knew that all we had to do was put in the time, work hard to improve, challenge ourselves to get better and that golden soccer ball would be obtainable,” said St. Joseph head coach Mike Balestra.

The Flyers — who won the first meeting 1-0 at Lucasville — improved to 13-2-1 overall and are 7-0 in the league. Valley slips to 8-5-1 and 5-2 in the SOC.

“We had a dominant performance tonight in all aspects of the game. It was a total team effort against a very good Valley team,” said Balestra.

“This group is very committed to each other and the team. They accomplished our first goal of the season and earned back-to-back conference championships. Our next goal is starting next week in the Division 5 state tournament. We believe we are up for the challenge.”

The Flyers struck at the 22:09 mark when Texas Jack Whaley took a pass from Carson Lyons and drilled a shot home from 25 yards away.

Landon “Rocky” Rowe used his speed to outrun a pair of defenders and took a feed from Lyons and lined a shot over the goalkeeper’s head into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead with 19:39 on the clock.

Valley scored first in the second half as Jaxsyn Bender avoided the goalkeeper on a runout and scored into an open net.

But St. Joseph got the goal back with 9:40 play as Wesley Neal made string music off a touch pass from Rowe on a play started by Whaley who made a great crossing pass to Rowe.

Balestra said this title came as somewhat of a surprise because the team graduated 4 starters and lost 3 more players to sports at Ironton.

“That took most of our returning midfield,” said Balestra. “Our front line consisting of Wesley Neal, Landon Rowe and Jack Whaley was the only area where we had a lot of experience coming back. We leaned on them to build our team and move forward. Their leadership provided the foundation to build upon.”

Balestra said many younger players got a lot of experience in backup roles last year and Balestra said that he and assistant coach Jimmy Rowe have always stressed the ‘next man up” mental approach.

“The players are ready for a chance to prove themselves. Also, our underclassmen got varsity experience last year and this helped us regroup,” said Balestra.

“I can’t say enough about our defense consisting of Kemper Kerecman, Blake Medinger, Ian Whaley, Carson Willis and goalkeeper Beckham Waginger who is just a freshman. They have come together and played extremely well all year.

“Our midfield consisting of Carson Lyons, Mason Weber and Eli Whaley have worked hard to improve their technical and tactical skills. They are starting to dominate the middle third and are improving their play each week.”

Flyers’ goalkeeper Beckham Waginger had 6 saves while Valley’s keeper Hunter Sparks had 5 saves.

Both teams took 18 shots with the Flyers attempting 8 on goal and the Indians 7. St. Joseph had 6 corner kicks and 8 fouls with Valley having 3 corner kicks and 6 fouls.

The Flyers final regular season game is Thursday against SOC foe Portsmouth Clay.

Lucasville    0 1 = 1

St. Joseph 2 1 = 3

First Half

SJ — Jack Whaley (assist Carson Lyons) 22:09

SJ — Landon Rowe (assist Carson Lyons) 19:39

Second Half

LV — Jaxsyn Bender (unassisted) 17:40

SJ — Wesley Neal (assist Landon Rowe) 9:40

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Game Statistics

Goalkeeper—Valley; Hunter Sparks 5 saves; St. Joseph: Beckham Waginger 6 saves

Shots—Valley 18, St. Joseph 18

Shots on Goal—Valley 7, St. Joseph 8

Corner Kicks—Valley 3, St. Joseph 6

Fouls—Valley 6, St. Joseph 8