Fulton County Ohio Media

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After reaching the OHSAA Girls Soccer District Championship match for the first time in school history, the Evergreen Lady Vikings added to their storied season with a thrilling 1-0 victory over fellow NWOAL rival, the Delta Lady Panthers, and punched their ticket to the DV Regional Semi-Finals next Tuesday in Port Clinton.  The match, held at Evergreen High School’s Pifer Field, had the 4th-seeded Lady Vikes as the “visitors” on the scoreboard to the 1st-seeded “home team” the 2024 NWOAL Champion Lady Panthers.  Evergreen had reached this unprecedented level after a 2-1 win over the 2^nd-seeded and perennial power Archbold Lady Blue Streaks.

Despite a regular season loss to Delta back in September, the Lady Vikings played with confidence and showed no signs of being intimidated.  Late in the first half, freshman sensation Addison Gleckler out maneuvered the defense in front of the Panther goal and fired a shot high into the back of the net at the 11:16 mark for the game’s only score.  “You give her a little space and you’re in trouble.  She takes a step and a hard shot is coming,” Ott remarked on Glecker’s game winner.

For the rest of the half and well into the second, the teams battled back and forth with no clear advantage by either side.  However, as Viking coach Jacob Ott knew, the Lady Panthers had earned their lofty seeding and would not be going down easily.  “We knew they had some great forwards and they were going to come out firing.  We talked about it at halftime that we just had to play our game,” said Coach Ott explaining his team’s second half strategy.  “We didn’t want to change our game plan just because of the score and that’s exactly what we did.” 

In the final 20 minutes, the Delta offense was relentless in putting pressure on the Evergreen defense and goalie Ellie Nash.   The Viking defenders harassed the Panther shooters into many missed or weak shot shots on goal and Nash was aggressive in guarding the net, intercepting several centering passes inside the box.  “Our defense, they really don’t get the credit they deserve.  Those back four, all seniors, they’re out to prove a point their last year and they showed that tonight.  They deserve all the credit in the world.  They’re strong defenders and the can take on anyone,” said Ott.

Coach Ott also acknowledged the contributions of Lady Viking soccer teams that came before this championship group.  “We’ve got to give some credit to the teams of the past.  They built a great culture here at Evergreen.  We don’t always get the respect that we deserve but we proved that today, that we deserve some respect,” he said.

The history making victory was the 13^th of the season for Evergreen against five losses and two ties.  The Lady Vikings will now travel to Port Clinton to face the Columbus Grove Lady Bulldogs at True-Lay Stadium.  Game time is 7:00 pm on Tuesday, October 29^th.

Click 0n the link above to access photos from the match. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Evergreen Lady Vikings – OHSAA District V Girls Soccer Champions