Photo by Cody Tomer
Wheeling Central’s Austin Nestor scored a pair of goals and delivered an assist in Wednesday’s victory.

WHEELING — Wheeling Central’s Austin Nestor found the holes in Weir’s defense on Wednesday night and he took advantage.

The Junior netted two goals and added an assist as the Maroon Knights (6-2-1) took down Weir (4-6) by a 4-2 final at the 16th Street Field.

“We’re very young,” Weir coach Matt Kopp said. “We showed some growth offensively but they exploited holes and were able to take advantage as a team.

“(Nestor) is very good at exploiting holes. They are very well coached. They lost Jacob Estep and they are still so good offensively. You’d think their offense would falter but they took advantage of every hole.

“Brayden Lawton is the fastest and one of the best defenders I’ve ever coached but anytime he stepped out of position, they scored. If he wasn’t right there, they scored.”

Along with Nestor’s two goals, Dunk Prajnabhakti and Luke Minor found the back of the net for the Knights.

“We just came off a tough week with Park and Linsly,” Central coach Brian Komoroski said. “Weir is our rival and it’s always a tough game. We knew this was a big game for sectional seeding, so we had to come out and play.”

Prajnabhakti and Nestor each scored in the first half and Jacob Morgan put Weir on the board to put Central on top 2-1 at halftime.

Just 12:44 into the second half, Antonio Pittman delivered the equalizer for the Red Riders but the match didn’t stay deadlocked for long as Minor supplied what proved to be the game-winning goal one minute later.

“At half, we really talked about ball possession and passing the ball,” Komoroski said. “We were just playing the ball long constantly and that’s not what we want to do.

“We came out in the second half and began possessing the ball and passing the ball much better and really controlled the game at that point.”

Weir’s John Wansack collected eight saves, while Giulio Gentile garnered two saves in the win.

“We’re just going to continue to work on our consistency and just enjoy playing,” Kopp said. “With everything we’ve been through the last week, we’re just enjoying playing.”