DEVOLA - Senior night for the Marietta High girls soccer team resulted in a 3-3 tie against Parkersburg South Thursday at Devola Soccer Complex.
The Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half. With 25:14 left in the half, senior Molly Josefson attempted a shot that bounced off the right goal post, but junior Katie Miller was in the right spot and was able to boot the ball in to begin the scoring.
Shortly after, senior Amelia Gullick fired in a shot at the top of the net over the goalie to make it 2-0.
Josefson was credited with the assist on the play.
The Patriots had several chances to cut the lead in the first half. With 18:12 left, they attempted a direct kick, but Marietta keeper Nora Gullick jumped and tipped the high kick over the net for the save.
Then with 13:57 left, Gullick notched two more saves. The first came on a Parkersburg South penalty kick. After Gullick made the save, the ball deflected away from her, giving the Patriots a second chance, but Gullick recovered, got up and made another save to preserve the 2-0 lead.
"Nora, our goal keeper, made some really nice saves," said Marietta head coach Jeff Price. "Especially on the (penalty kick), and a couple other ones."
South (7-7-5) finally scored with 10:34 left, when junior Kaitlyn Miller made a shot on the left side of the net, with an assist from junior Lexi Smith.
With just under four minutes remaining in the half, Miller returned the favor, assisting Smith on a goal to tie things up at 2.
The second half was a defensive struggle, quite the opposite of the first half.
The Patriots took their first lead of the game with just 9:11 remaining in the game. Miller scored her second goal, with an assist from her sister Halleigh Miller to put South up 3-2.
Josefson, who leads the Tigers in goals this season, got out away from the pack and scored a breakaway goal with 7:53 left to secure the tie.
Both teams went back and forth in the final seven minutes, but neither was able to put one in the net.
"I was impressed with the effort from Marietta," said Parkersburg South head coach Ron Bucholtz. "They really came out and played tough tonight."
Price, whose team is now 7-7-2 on the season, agreed that it was toughly battled contest.
"It was hard fought on both sides," Price explained. "The girls fought very hard. That was the biggest thing. They never even thought about giving up."
The Tigers now prepare to play host to Athens in Ohio Division II sectional play on Monday.
BOYS
Marietta 4, Morgan 0
The Marietta Tigers capped off senior night with a 4-0 shutout victory over the Morgan Raiders Thursday evening at the Devola Soccer Complex.
The 2012 East Central Ohio League champion Tigers honored it's four seniors before the game and then broke open a 1-0 game with three second half goals to win going away.
Colin Jordan, Holden Weihl, Matt Chalfant, and Bresdon Treadway make up the Tiger senior class of 2012 and the latter two accounted for the first Tiger score of the night.
Just six minutes into the game, Treadway launched a kick from the right side that bounced off of Raider keeper Colin Makatura and off of the chest of Chalfant and into the goal for a 1-0 MHS lead.
The Tigers would spend the rest of the first half knocking on the door for another goal, firing off 15 first half shots on goal, but the orange and black would fail to reach the net the rest of the half.
MHS barely missed a pair of goals late in the first half as shots by both Brent Huck and Jacob Holdren both sailed high and just over the top of the goal.
