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CELEBRATION — Weir High’s Alex Guio is surrounded by his teammates after scoring the game-winning goal in the sixth round of the penalty shootout to beat Oak Glen in the OVAC Class 4A tournament quarterfinals at Jimmy Carey Stadium on Monday. – Andrew Grimm

WEIRTON — The best way to describe Monday’s OVAC Class 4A quarterfinal match would be to call it a roller coaster of emotions.

The tournament’s 4th seeded hosts, Weir High School, trailed at half-time, took the lead late in the match, came close to winning in extra time but closed the gap on penalties to beat their district rivals, 5th seed Oak Glen, 4-3 and advance to the semi-finals.

“It was a great game” “We knew they were going to come out with some energy, we played them last week,” Weir High head coach Adam Welsh said. “We fell behind but we were playing well. We were doing everything but finding the back of the net. We started scoring in the second half.

“I love how the kids competed. I’m proud of everyone’s effort. I think everyone put in a great effort. It’s a district competition at the OVACs, we expected it to be a battle.”

The Golden Bears (3-9) led 2-0 after 40 minutes thanks to two first-half goals by CJ Duty, but the Red Riders (5-8) were not ready to go.

“I think we hit every point directly and directly” “The boys didn’t give up and kept fighting,” Welsh said. “They have some fighting ability in them and they’re not going to back down from a challenge. We had some struggles and adversity at the beginning of the year but they kept working hard and improving and that’s all I can ask of them.

“We’re really happy to come away with a win.”

Caiden Lamp brought the Red Riders into the lead less than six minutes into the second half, converting a penalty, and less than six minutes later, Jared Bishof equalized the score at 2-2 when he slotted home a loose ball.

Weir had several chances to take the lead before Duty won a penalty with more than 26 minutes left to retake the lead but his shot went narrowly wide.

With 13:15 left in the game, Weir took the lead again when Micah Hvizdack put a rebound into the net, giving Weir his first lead.

But the Golden Bears were not finished yet, with Bode Konchar’s corner kick hitting the post with 7:20 left in the game, tying the score 3-3.

Weir hit the post with around five minutes left in the match, then hit another post and narrowly missed once more in the first of two five-minute overtimes.

In the second overtime, the Golden Bears’ shot hit the post but was negated by Weir’s free kick, and the match went to penalties to determine the winner.

Oak Glen were 2-0 up after the first three rounds but Weir scored the next four attempts and Red Riders goalkeeper Ben Howard saved two of the last three rounds to give the Riders a penalty shoot-out and the match the same score of 4-3.

“That was probably one of the best games we’ve been involved in in my time coaching.” Oak Glen head coach Dallas Brewer said: “It hurts, any time it comes down to PKs, it could go either way. We worked on PKs (Saturday) and it went really well, so I felt confident going into this one, but it didn’t work out to our advantage. (Weir) just made better shots than we did.

“I can honestly say that no matter what the score is, this team will not give up the fight.”

The Red Riders advance to face No. 2 seed Harrison Central on the road at Wagner Field on Wednesday. The Huskies had a bye in the first round. The winner of that game will advance to Saturday’s finals.

Oak Glen will face Wheeling Central next through Oct. 2.

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