Photo by Kelly Patrick Marietta Junior Lily Westbrook, 5, dribbles Parkersburg South sophomore Libby Henderson, 15, during a high school women’s soccer game Saturday afternoon at Ericsson All Sports Facility. trying to overtake. Marietta suffered her first loss in three games of the season after her 1-0 loss to the Patriots.
PARKERSBURG — Adrienne Altizer’s persistence paid off.
The sophomore scored the only goal of the match on Saturday afternoon as the Parkersburg South women’s soccer team beat Marietta 1-0 at the Ericsson Allsports facility.
The eventual game winner occurred at the 31:37 mark of the second half when he shot from 15 yards out of the net. The Patriots earned his 4th win in many games to start the 2022 season.
“My teammate passed me the ball, but the grass was high and I tried to touch it, but it didn’t move.” Altizer said. “I touched it again, but I thought this wouldn’t work. At that point, both defenders were closing me in. I had to look for another option.”
“I turned around to find someone else and they ran up to help me, but when I turned around they were gone and I shot them.”
In the final five minutes of the second half, despite having multiple possessions in the final third of the field, Marietta managed just one shot on goal against Patriots keeper Mackenzie Mott, each with a Empty.
The Tigers lost for the first time in three games this season.
“Parkersburg South is a very good team. They are the standard in what everyone is trying to reach.” Marietta’s co-coach Bill Mannix said: “We have to make some small adjustments. I don’t think it’s far from what it should be.
“We’re using the early games of the season to help us see what we need to work on going forward.”
South coach Ron Bucoltz knew he would have his hands full on the offense trying to send the ball past Marietta’s keeper Reihara Lauer. Lauer did his job, cramming two shots on goal in a scoreless first half and making three more saves in the final 40 minutes.
“Marietta are clearly a quality team.” Bucholz said. “They brought more pressure than we have seen all season.
“We created some chances in the first half. I was really happy with the free-kicks. We need kicks, we knew we needed quality shots to beat them and we saw that in the second half.”
Marietta failed to score his first goal of the match. With less than 18 minutes remaining in the first half, senior Katie Mannix lined up for a free-kick 45 yards from the net. Mannix’s strike appeared to go to the top of the net, but it missed Mott’s fingertips and clipped the crossbar, and fortunately the Patriots fell out of bounds for the goal kick.
Includes Mott shutout 10 saves as keeps
“I’m very happy today — (Mackenzie) did a great job in goal, won some free balls and some tosses and managed the clock himself.” Bucholz said. “Starting next Saturday, we had to play with quality teams, in that order, Philip Barber, Bexley, Wheeling Park and Morgantown. You have to stay healthy and play smart.”
Kelly Patrick can be reached at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com.
