BECKLEY - All season long, Charleston Catholic ran circles around its competition. It was no different Saturday afternoon.

Sophomore Amanda Johns and freshman Emily Blake scored a goal apiece as the Fighting Irish beat Weir 2-0 to cap a dominating season with the Class AA-A championship in the girls high school state tournament at Carter Field at the YMCA Youth Sports Complex.

Catholic (16-6-2), which was appearing in its first state tournament in school history, finished the season as the top-ranked team in the final state coaches association rankings and proved it during the state tournament. The Irish beat Weir 2-0 during the regular season.

The Irish downed No. 3 Pocahontas County 4-0 in Friday's semifinals before blanking Weir (15-4-4), which was also appearing in its first state tournament. Catholic, which played 10 AAA games, was dominant all season, allowing eight goals, including just one to AA-A competition, and shutting out its final five opponents.

"We put in a lot of work beginning with the first day of practice and it feels nice to accomplish what we set out to do,'' said Catholic coach Kevin Nelson, whose son Ethan was on Catholic's boys team that lost in Friday's semifinals.

"We practice up at Treister [Field and] we would always run around the field to warm up and then [the players] started coming up with ideas, 'Well, let's run the hill or let's run to Edgewood Summit or let's run the trail.' We started bringing running shoes to practice and that really helped us the last month of the season. We were in better shape than we've ever been before.''

Johns' goal with about 19 minutes left Saturday in the opening half put Catholic up for good at 1-0. Blake netted a goal with about 11 minutes to go in the second half to seal the deal. Sophomore keeper Diane Bronikowski, who finished with two saves, and the Irish defense stonewalled Weir, holding it to two shots in 80 minutes.

"I thought our defense won it,'' Nelson said. "The first time we played Weir we really controlled the midfield. I thought they at least did a better job of challenging us in terms of ball possession and ball winning. That meant our defense had to step up because they were going to face more [scoring] opportunities from Weir.''

BECKLEY - All season long, Charleston Catholic ran circles around its competition. It was no different Saturday afternoon.

Sophomore Amanda Johns and freshman Emily Blake scored a goal apiece as the Fighting Irish beat Weir 2-0 to cap a dominating season with the Class AA-A championship in the girls high school state tournament at Carter Field at the YMCA Youth Sports Complex.

Catholic (16-6-2), which was appearing in its first state tournament in school history, finished the season as the top-ranked team in the final state coaches association rankings and proved it during the state tournament. The Irish beat Weir 2-0 during the regular season.

The Irish downed No. 3 Pocahontas County 4-0 in Friday's semifinals before blanking Weir (15-4-4), which was also appearing in its first state tournament. Catholic, which played 10 AAA games, was dominant all season, allowing eight goals, including just one to AA-A competition, and shutting out its final five opponents.

"We put in a lot of work beginning with the first day of practice and it feels nice to accomplish what we set out to do,'' said Catholic coach Kevin Nelson, whose son Ethan was on Catholic's boys team that lost in Friday's semifinals.

"We practice up at Treister [Field and] we would always run around the field to warm up and then [the players] started coming up with ideas, 'Well, let's run the hill or let's run to Edgewood Summit or let's run the trail.' We started bringing running shoes to practice and that really helped us the last month of the season. We were in better shape than we've ever been before.''

Johns' goal with about 19 minutes left Saturday in the opening half put Catholic up for good at 1-0. Blake netted a goal with about 11 minutes to go in the second half to seal the deal. Sophomore keeper Diane Bronikowski, who finished with two saves, and the Irish defense stonewalled Weir, holding it to two shots in 80 minutes.

"I thought our defense won it,'' Nelson said. "The first time we played Weir we really controlled the midfield. I thought they at least did a better job of challenging us in terms of ball possession and ball winning. That meant our defense had to step up because they were going to face more [scoring] opportunities from Weir.''

Senior Paige Dalrymple turned in five saves for Weir.

"Their defense was tough,'' said Weir coach Chris LeFever of Catholic's play. "They kept us spread out. We didn't get to play our small game. Even shots outside they put a lot of pressure on [our players].

"The intensity. That's what makes it so hard [against Catholic]. Every time we received the ball they were on us immediately. You didn't get a split second to turn. I'm very proud of my girls. We went a long way this year. It takes an awful lot of heart to push and get to this point.''

The Fighting Irish received contributions across the board this season from freshmen to seniors and everyone between. Blake scored a goal in the second five-minute sudden-death overtime period to lift Catholic to a 1-0 win over Sissonville in the regional finals.

Sophomore Stephanie Supcoe was instrumental in helping hold Pocahontas scoreless from her stopper position in Friday's semis and Johns led the team in goals with 18. And sophomores Rachel Silverman and Meg Whelan were the main reasons Catholic has been able to control the midfield for long stretches.

"We put a lot of time into this,'' said Bronikowski, whose brother Mark was also on the Irish boys team that fell in the semis. "We even wanted to run more in practice so we could be in shape for this tournament.''

"We wanted to challenge ourselves,'' added Blake. "We found ways to push ourselves so we'd play better in the games. We just knew we were No. 1. We just had to prove it and we did.''

Reach Tommy R. Atkinson at 348-4811 or tatkin...@wvgazette.com.