Parkersburg High boys soccer team one win from Class AAA state tournament
PARKERSBURG — When Parkersburg High School and Hurricane met earlier this season the two schools battled to a 2-2 tie. However, the score didn’t tell the whole story of the game.
“We did everything but win the game,” said PHS head coach Don Fosselman, whose team outshot the Redskins 15-5 and had eight corner kicks to Hurricane’s 1 in the affair.
An unlucky goal off an unfortunate PHS Kyle Goodwin save attempt really was the only thing which kept the Big Reds from victory on the evening. That and the outstanding play of Hurricane goal keeper Dalton Burch, who saved 13 Big Reds shots on the night.
“Every time we seemed to get a kick at the goal it seemed to go right at Burch,” said Fossleman. “We had opportunities and we didn’t finish and Hurricane’s goalkeeper did a great job keeping our shots out of his net. We also had a little miscommunication on Hurricane’s first goal but have since worked on those issues in practice.”
If there is one thing the Big Reds did do to really bother Hurricane it was applying heavy pressure from both Parker Miller and Immanual Opoku-Duah. The two helped lead a dominating second half where possession was nearly constant for the Big Reds and shots on goal were plentiful.
The two programs are set for a second clash this season after both schools won its respective sectional to get a chance to advance to the state tournament as the Class AAA, Region II champion.
The teams will battle it out at 7 p.m. Thursday night at PHS Stadium Field.
“Both teams have improved a lot since we last faced each other,” said Fosselman. “They are a great program and have a good head coach who coaches them well.”
If there is one thing PHS can do well, it is switch up its philosphy from possession to long ball or kick-and-rush. Opoku-Duah is quick and Miller is 6-2 with Teddy Hutson also bringing some height to the field. Though Fosselman loves possession game, he isn’t afraid to change on the fly.
In fact, the Big Reds found their scoring in the second half of its sectional final win over Ripley. After being stifled by the Vikings pressure in the opening half, Fosselman switched tactics away from possession and his team scored the only four goals of the final 40 minutes to come away with the victory.
“It is unlikely Hurricane will push up and give us the space over the top like Ripley did,” said Fosselman. “But there may be a few times in the game where we can switch tactics for short periods of time.”
In other regional action around the state: Wheeling Park will take on University in the Region I final (the winner of this game will face the winner of PHS/Hurricane in the opening round of the state tournament), Hedgesville meets Jefferson in the Region II championship bout, and George Washington will meet Woodrow Wilson in Region III.