'It's all worth it': Wild ride leads River Valley to outright MOAC boys soccer championship

BELLVILLE — River Valley boys soccer coach Joel Richards wears his emotions on his sleeve.

On Tuesday night after the Vikings clinched the first outright Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference championship in program history with a 1-1 tie to Clear Fork, Richards let those emotions fly. He told his players just how proud he was of them and let them know that they have put the River Valley soccer program on the map by winning the first MOAC boys soccer championship not owned by a Richland County team since 2016.

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And while he showed his emotion, he also showed humility.

"I love (Clear Fork coach) Nate Gailey, his team and that program," Richards said. "Everything they do over there is what we want to be. Ontario, Clear Fork, that is what we strive to be like, but to beat Ontario and tie Clear Fork, it is just special for this senior class."

The Vikings clinched at least a share of the league title last week with a 6-0 win over Galion but needed a win or a tie to win it outright. They went into halftime trailing 1-0 after Nick Martin put the Colts on top with a perfect strike off of an assist from Kade Beachy with 11:31 left in the first half.

"We played very tight at the beginning and Clear Fork was owning us up top," Richards said. "They were doing everything we said they were going to do. They moved the ball and played hard and the Kade Beachy kid is the real deal. This senior class has been with me since the beginning and they made sure we responded as a team."

The Vikings responded with 31:55 left in the game when they drew a foul in the box leading to a Hudson Pollock penalty kick goal to even things up at 1-1.

"Usually at practice, I always take my shots to that side," Pollock said. "I was going to go to the other side, but I didn't think it was a good time to test out a new approach."

And that was when the Vikings went on the defensive to preserve a tie.

"Hudson Pollock, man, he is special," Richards said. "After we tied it up, he asked to go back and play some defense midfield and took the game over. He and his teammates wanted it so bad and they became the first team to win an MOAC soccer championship."

The Colts didn't tie for a lack of trying. They put numerous shots off of the post and a number of others just inches over the cross bar in the first half. They had several corner kicks and a couple of good looks in the second half, but just couldn't put in the goal that could have clinched them a share of the league championship.

"We talked at halftime that we just had to keep doing what we were doing because it was working," Gailey said. "We didn't get as many looks in the second half because River Valley made some nice adjustments. We still got some looks but just never got one in the net. That is why soccer is a funny game."

Gailey noticed a different River Valley team in the second half.

"They played with more discipline and their shape was better than it was in the first half," Gailey said. "We weren't able to put some through and run on like we did in the first half. We stopped moving the ball effectively and just never got things out in space. Both teams just wanted it so bad and that is what led to some possessions not being as clean."

River Valley (12-3-1, 5-0-1) has been through it this season. Christian Knight was the team's leading scorer through six games with nine goals but suffered a devastating knee injury that ended his season. And yet, the Vikings went 7-2-1 without their senior star.

"If he plays the entire year, it is a different game, but credit goes to my guys," Richards said. "I can't say enough about them coming in May and June and putting in the work and believing we could do this.

"It's been one of those seasons. It's been amazing, exhausting, dynamic, frustrating, but to cap it all off tonight at 13-3-1 and a league championship, it's all worth it."

For Pollock, it is all thanks to the passion of his coach. He took the Vikings from 6-12 in 2021 to 9-8 in 2022 and 13-5-1 in 2023 then finally, MOAC champs in 2024.

"It feels amazing because if you look at us our freshman year, we were not that good," Pollock said. "To take our program from that 6-12 to league champions is pretty big. Credit goes to our coach. He is amazing and he coaches with a lot of emotion for the game and it makes us play with a lot of fire."

Clear Fork (6-7-3, 4-1-1) will head back to the drawing board as they prepare for the regular season finale on Thursday at home against Ashland before heading into the Division V district tournament next week.

"The postgame message was similar to the one we had when we were sitting out in the outfield after losing a scrimmage to Edison during the preseason," Gailey said. "I told them they can either turn the corner from here and use this to get better or we can hang our heads and let this be who we are. We will use it to get better because the season is far from over. We feel like we have a lot of soccer left to play."

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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: 'It's all worth it': Wild ride leads River Valley to outright MOAC boys soccer championship