It took South Webster's offense a little while to get rolling but once it did the Jeeps were unstoppable.

South Webster scored two goals late in the first half — the first by Brice Patterson and the second by Braden Ruth — to defeat Berlin Hiland 3-0 in the Division III Regional Semifinal at Philo High School on Tuesday night.

The win sends the Jeeps to the regional final for the first time in school history. The semifinal appearance itself marked just the second time the team had made it that far.

Berlin Hiland had more shots on goal in the contest but the Jeep defense and keeper Wes Loop turned in another solid performance. Loop had 10 saves.

"Man our defense was strong," South Webster coach Corey Claxon said. "We shut them out. They had a lot of shots but they weren't really scary shots."

Offensively, Ruth and Patterson were the team's workhorses. Patterson tacked on an insurance goal with 1:13 to play in the game as well.

"Ruth and Patterson worked extremely hard tonight and extremely well together," Claxon said. "I've never seen them work as hard as they did. The first half was great just to see them work that hard."

With the win the Jeeps move on to play Worthington Christian in the regional final at Riverview High School at 3 p.m. this Saturday. On top of that, Hiland had gotten the best of South Webster in the team's two previous meetings since Claxon took over as coach.

"It was a good win for our program and a good win for southern Ohio," Claxon said. "We played them several times and it was the first time for us to beat them. We finally got that monkey off our backs."

South Webster 2 1 — 0

Berlin Hiland 0 0 — 0

First half — SW, Patterson (una) 6:02; SW, Ruth (una) 4:18.

Second half — SW, Patterson (una) 1:13.

Record — South Webster 19-1