Parkersburg girls edge GW

October 14, 2007

By Matt McCartney
For The Charleston Gazette

RIPLEY — Brooke Logston scored a goal with less than seven minutes to play to lift Parkersburg to a 1-0 win over George Washington in the Mountain State Athletic Conference championship game Saturday afternoon.

The Patriots (15-3-2) blocked a would-be goal, but the ball rolled in front of the net, giving Logston an opportunity to knock it in to give the Big Reds (17-1-2) the goal they needed to defend their conference title.

“We got lucky,” Parkersburg coach Mike Lockney said. “These are two really good teams that pushed each other the entire game. We got a little break late in the game and were able to take advantage of it. Otherwise, everyone would have seen overtime.”

The Big Reds methodically controlled the ball for most of the first half and forced the Patriots primarily to play defense. Midway through the half, George Washington seemingly found its rhythm and began to work the ball deep on the Parkersburg side of the field.

The Big Reds had a total of 11 shots, with six on goal in the first half and more than half coming in the final seven minutes of play. The tenacious

play of Patriot defenders Megan Johnson and Hallie Berry helped prevent Parkersburg from taking advantage of its scoring chances.

The second half started just the opposite. Early on, it was George Washington that controlled the ball. The Patriots limited the Big Reds to just two shots, and none on goal, for the first 19 minutes. Parkersburg rattled off eight shots, with six on goal from that point. The Patriots finished with four shots on goal in the game versus 12 for the Big Reds.

“Everyone played very well, and it was a very even match,” GW coach Laura Barber. “We hate that we lost that way, but these are two good teams and I couldn’t have asked for these girls to play any better.”

In the third-place game, Hurricane (14-1-3) defeated Nitro (10-6-4) 4-0. The teams battled evenly in the first half before the Redskins scored a goal with 40 seconds remaining to lead a 1-0 at the break. Hurricane added three goals in the second half.

Jordan Starcher, Abby Parker, Josie Crouch and Julianna Meyatt scored for the Redskins. Wildcat keeper Lyndsey Kersns recorded 22 saves in the game, in which the Redskins outshot Nitro 22-5