MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Williamstown erased a 1-0 deficit and came back for a 3-1 victory against University High on Tuesday at Mylan Pharmaceuticals Stadium.
The strategy for both coaches became obvious shortly after the opening whistle.
Williamstown (11-4) looked use strong ball pressure to maintain to possession in the attacking third as much as possible, while UHS (9-7) did their best to sag back, shut down quality scoring attempts at the point of the shot, and then counter aggressively with speed when the opportunity arose.
Both worked quite nicely.
After yielding a few solid shots that were gobbled up by confident Hawks keeper Rachel Works, University broke out on top when senior forward Tali Sizemore pressured the WHS center back into a turnover, then raced in alone and calmly buried a shot past the Yellowjackets’ keeper Sophie Folwell from 12 yards out in the 12th minute.
After a WHS free ball goal off a corner kick was disallowed on a foul, the Yellowjackets knotted the score when junior Avery Smith, initially snuffed on a shot at the 18, collected the ball at her feet and looped a shot over Works to tie the match.
The most exciting stretch of play in the match came in the last five minutes of the half, as Works (who finished with 17 saves) turned in two remarkable stops, only to be matched on the other end by Folwell, who deflected two more one-on-one jail-break counter-attacks from the Hawks.
The second half began much as the first, with a strong Williamstown effort rebuffed, yielding a dangerous counter by the Hawks.
But this time, Folwell again burst off her line twice to deflect open looks on goal, and later, a loose ball just feet in front the cage somehow managed to bounce off the scrum and was cleared from danger. It became ‘opportunity missed, opportunity lost’ for University, as WHS senior Emma Berman rocketed a right-footed shot over Works’ outstretched fingers and under the crossbar for a 2-1 lead in the 59th minute.
Finally, with five minutes left, Berman fired a near mirror-image shot in for the clincher.
Afterwards, UHS coach Graham Peace was impressed with the effort of both teams.
“It was an interesting tactical match, for sure,” he said. “We were down so many starters with injuries already, and then the stomach flu really hit us hard right before game time. So we knew that our best chance was to sit back and wait for our chances to run out on counters. Rachel was phenomenal in goal, and really gave us a chance. We were a bit unlucky not to get another goal early in the second half, and that might’ve made a difference. In the end, we were just exhausted.”
University will travel to Buckhannon-Upshur at 11 a.m. Saturday for it’s next match, before hosting Bridgeport on Oct.13.
Boys’ soccer
Trinity 9, Magnolia 0
NEW MARTINSVILLE — Three different players scored a pair of goals each for Trinity Christian in its victory over Magnolia.
Gabe Turak, Kyle Knight and Charles Steptoe each scored twice to lead Trinity to its fourth-consecutive win.
Carter Hartsock, Lydia Knight and Brock Shuba rounded out the scoring. Turak assisted on four of the goals.
Ben Lohmann and Shuba combined in goal with six saves for the team’s seventh shutout of the season.
Trinity (10-4) returns to action at home at 7 p.m. Thursday when it hosts Parkersburg South.
Volleyball
Morgantown High swept a tri-match with a 2-1 victory against Dover (Ohio) and a 2-0 victory against Wheeling Park.
Issy Grushecky led the way with 11 kills, 10 blocks and two service aces, while teammate Kaitlyn Anderson had 11 kills.
Paige Brock had eight kills, 20 assists and four aces and Ella Voorhees added 10 digs for the Mohigans.
