Parkersburg rolls Highlanders 7-1

 

By JASON McCLURE
The Herald-Dispatch

 

HUNTINGTON —Huntington High’s boys soccer team wasn’t just battling the sweltering heat in its game on Saturday, the Highlanders were also slugging it out with Parkersburg, which happens to be the Class AAA defending state soccer champs.

It only took the Big Reds one minute to score their first goal as they posted a convincing 7-1 win over the Highlanders. Parkersburg improved to 3-2, while Huntington is still in search of its first win at 0-3.

 

Huntington High coach Jeff Kepler said his team had its moments, but remains far from making the type of progress he would like to see.

“I saw some good things out there today, but I also saw several areas we need to improve in,” Kepler said. “The kids didn’t give up and they kept playing hard the entire game.”

Just around one minute into the contest, Parkersburg’s Adam Alleman fired a shot that Huntington goalkeeper Chris Owens couldn’t handle. This deflated the Highlanders and gave the Big Reds a quick 1-0 lead.

Early on, Parkersburg controlled the pace and kept pushing the ball towards Huntington’s goal. At the 17-minute mark, Scott McClure sent a pass to Ryan Grant that Grant then smacked in the back of the goal for a 2-0 Parkersburg lead.

Grant wasn’t finished. Just three minutes later Cody Brown found another streaking Grant in front of the goal for the easy score and 3-0 lead.

Grant displayed a swift stride up the field throughout the day and a combination of moves that allowed him to blow past defenders with the ball. Huntington couldn’t find an answer to slow Grant.

Huntington responded, denying the shutout when Matt Gray converted a penalty kick at the 36:30 mark. But a relentless Parkersburg squad responded with another goal just 30 seconds later, this time by Michael Beaver. The Big Reds took a 4-1 lead into halftime.

At the end of the first half and throughout the second half, Huntington matched Parkersburg stride for stride and threatened to score just as much as Parkersburg. But the only area where the Highlanders were significantly outplayed was in goals’ scored.

 

In the second half Brown scored back-to-back goals to pad Parkersburg’s lead at 6-1 and make a comeback virtually impossible. Both of Brown’s goals were power shots that were scored right in front of the net.

“Any time we come up here and play a tough Huntington team and get a win, we consider it a quality victory,” said Parkersburg coach Don Fossleman.” “We had to play a lot of players today so the heat wouldn’t get to us that bad.”

Parkersburg 4 3 — 7
Huntington 1 0 — 1
P- Adam Alleman (unassisted), 1:07
P- Ryan Grant (Scott McClure), 17:00
P- Ryan Grant (Cody Brown), 20:00
H- Matt Gray (penalty kick), 36:30
P- Michael Bever (McClure assist), 37:00
P- Cody Brown (unassisted), 50:00
P Brown (unassisted), 60:00
P- Spader (McClure), 78:00