Jansen Ours looks to strike. (Photo by Gary Leininger)

CALCUTTA — Beaver Local’s top-seeded girls’ soccer team punched its ticket to the Division IV district title game for a second consecutive season after posting a 6-0 win over 10th-seeded Warsaw River View in a district semifinal at Pastore Field here Monday evening.

“I just think that it was a great team win,” lauded the Beaver Local head coach Liz Connor. “We were knocking the ball and were very confident with each other, and that’s what we’ve asked the girls (to do) all season. If we continue playing for each other I think that we’ll continue to have success.”

“We don’t like to play defense the whole game but we were challenged all year offensively,” said River View head coach David Kridler. “A lot of times we were playing for a 1-0 win, but I knew it was going to take more than one goal to beat this (Beaver Local) team that’s so potent.”

The win sends the Beavers (16-2) into Wednesday’s district final against the fourth-seeded Philo Electrics at 6:30 p.m. at St. Clairsville High School. Philo advanced Monday with a 4-2 win over the West Holmes Knights.

River View, which only scored 10 goals all season, bowed out with a 5-12-2 record.

Monday’s district semifinal was played almost entirely on the Black Bears’ side of the field as the hosts controlled the action at the offensive end. Beaver Local had nine shots on goal to zero for River View in the first half and held a commanding 24-3 advantage in that statistic for the match.

“We’ve seen River View quite a few times in the past in the tournament and we know they’re always very-well prepared, so coming in we did what we needed to,” noted Connor.

Beaver Local sophomore standout Peyton Dunn led the winners on the night with three of their six goals. She now has tallied 40 goals on the season and is ranked among the top 10 goal scorers (all divisions combined) in the Buckeye State.

“My goal this year, and I hope it is for the rest of the team, is to make it to state,” explained Dunn. “We have a chance to.”

“She (Dunn) always wants the ball in big moments,” said Connor. “She wants the ball on her feet and she always finds ways to find the back of the net for us. She knows the game very well and I’m very proud of all that she’s accomplished.”

“Our plan was to try to stay organized enough defensively that we could push our No. 20 (Chloee Adams) out of the back at some point, but the game just didn’t allow that,” said Kridler. “They were just putting too much pressure on us. And, unfortunately, Peyton Dunn was on her side, so if she would have vacated for us to try and find some offense that would have made things worse.”

The Beavers broke through against the Black Bears late in the first half when Dunn scored a goal on a deflected penalty kick from the right wing, giving the Beavers a 1-0 lead at the 10:33 mark of the first half.

The score remained that way at half.

“In the first half we knocked the ball around, but just couldn’t find the back of the net,” said Connor. “So we made some small adjustments that we talked about and in the second half we were able to find the back of the net a lot more successfully.”

The Beavers increased their advantage to 2-0 at the 27:07 mark of the second half when Dunn scored on a breakaway from the left side.

Once Beaver Local got some breathing room offensively, it tallied four more goals in the remaining time.

“Once a couple went in it started opening the gates a little bit,” stated Connor.

Freshman Jansen Ours tallied a goal off a deflection from seven yards away on the right side to give the hosts a 3-0 lead with 25:20 left on the second-half clock.

Junior Ralyn Gilson made it 4-0 with her goal at the 11:52 mark.

Dunn tallied her third goal with 3:17 left to make it 5-0 and senior Emily Saphore finished off the Beavers’ 6-0 triumph with a goal with just 1:36 left in the match.

“The players on this team are great (teammates),” praised Dunn.

Beaver Local goalkeeper Tatum Duncan had three saves on the night, while River View goalkeeper Elaina Brenly had 16 saves.

Beaver Local has been a consistent visitor to district title matches under Connor’s guidance.

“We’ve been to the (district) finals seven times since I’ve been here,” said Connor. “I think for the returning players it’s going to help them, but we have a lot of youth with (freshmen) Leah (Stewart) and Jansen (Ours) and sometimes a little inexperience and not knowing the pressure helps us out as well.”