MAGNOLIA — For Beaver Local, it was a “Dunn” deal.

Peyton Dunn, the Beavers’ fabulous freshman, rocketed a penalty kick into the back of the net at the 9:26 mark of overtime as fourth-seeded Beaver Local ousted third-seeded River View in a Div. IV district soccer semifinal Monday night at Sandy Valley High School.

Dunn was tripped on a breakaway early in the overtime and set up for a penalty kick about 15 yards straight out from the goal. She then stepped up and sent a line drive to the left of the Black Bears’ goalkeeper to win it, and the celebration was on.

“Oh, yeah, (I knew where I was going with the kick),” smiled Dunn, who has outstanding foot skills and plays club soccer to hone her craft. “Now, I want to win it, the whole thing.”

“She (Dunn) has been clutch at the spot this year,” praised Beaver Local head coach Liz Connor. “I anticipated it was going to be a good result. Luckily, we’ve been riding a little on Peyton’s back the last few games.”

The win vaults the Beavers (12-6-1) into a district final against top-seeded St. Clairsville at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Steubenville’s Harding Stadium. St. Clairsvile advanced Monday with a 4-0 victory over 10th-seeded East Liverpool.

Dunn, who recently broke the Beaver Local record for goals in a season, continued to add to her record against the Black Bears, tallying her 50th and 51st goals of the year.

“I broke it (the previous school record) at John Marshall,” explained Dunn. “It was 43.”

Dunn scored her first goal against the Black Bears to give Beaver Local a 1-0 lead at the 34:54 mark of the first half.

The Beavers’ outstanding defense made that stand up until just 13:46 remained in the second half when Beaver Local was hit with a penalty and the Black Bears converted with a 15-yard penalty kick to tie things up at 1-1.

Both teams had several chances to win it late but some outstanding saves by both keepers, including Beaver Local senior Tori Druschel, kept things even at 1-1 until Dunn’s game-winning penalty boot early in the extra session. Druschel finished with nine saves in the contest.

“I will give it to our goalkeeper, too,” lauded Connor of Druschel’s big night in goal. “She had been out with a broken arm that she suffered over the summer in softball and she just came back the last three or four games and she just played phenomenal in the back for us.”

The Beavers’ quickness on defense frustrated the third-seeded Black Bears. The first half was played on River View’s half of the field and the few times the Black Bears did break free, the Beaver Local defenders worked around them and denied their opportunities.

Connor praised several players for outstanding efforts on defense.

“Bella Long and Bella McLevey, both of our center backs, played great back there together ,” said the Beaver Local coach who also lauded the defensive efforts of Charlee Allison and Megan Henrich.

Connor said was not surprised by the close outcome with River View.

“It’s always been close with them when we’ve played them in the tournament, so I expected a good game and it didn’t disappoint,” stated the Beaver Local mentor.

Connor had a good feeling going into overtime.

“We knew the energy was shifting at the beginning, I felt like we had high intensity and energy in the second half,” she explained. “River View came out and put us to the test and I just said we have to give it our all because we know it was a golden goal opportunity.”

Looking ahead to Wednesday’s meeting with St. Clairsville, Connor sized up the Red Devils.

“We played them in the regular season and we lost, 2-0, and in the OVAC semifinal, we lost 4-2,” said Connor. “We have some different components going into this game,so we’re hoping some of the changes we’ve made late in the season will make a positive impact for us.”

Beaver Local finished with 11 shots on goal to 10 for the Black Bears.

River View is now 9-9-1 on the season.