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PHS boys soccer team doubles up Ripley, 4-2

Photo by Steve Hemmelgarn Ripley’s Kai Greely-Fay (13) battles Parkersburg’s Ian Domenick (5) and Jonathan Mason (12) for the ball during Thursday’s match at Stadium Field.

PARKERSBURG — Host Parkersburg High tallied two goals in each half while limiting Ripley to just one in each half as the Big Reds posted a 4-2 boys soccer win over the Vikings Thursday evening at Stadium Field.

PHS, now 4-1-1 on the season, plays next at home again on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. versus Warren, while Ripley, now 2-2, is also home at 10 a.m. Saturday for a match with Hurricane.

The Big Reds got on the board quickly Thursday, scoring on the first possession of the game as Ian Domenick knocked the ball in goal off an assist from Isaiah Owen just 39 seconds into play.

But then it took a while until the next score, and this time, it was Ripley tying up the game at 1-1 with Sam Pierson getting the goal at 10:16 of the first half.

That’s where it stood until the final minute of play in the first half when PHS’ Parker Miller scored off a Matt Runyon assist with only 46 seconds left until intermission to give the Big Reds a 2-1 lead at halftime.

And PHS notched the initial score of the second half as Runyon netted a unassisted goal at the 33:47 mark to push the advantage to 3-1.

However, the visiting Vikings again pulled within one at 3-2 with 21:05 to play on a second goal by Pierson.

But with 13:49 left in the match, the Big Reds got an insurance score as Murad Hamirani kicked in a rebound shot.

PHS doubled up shots on goal to Ripley by a 20-10 margin, while Big Red keeper Jacob McKnight made 14 saves, diving for several stops, while Ripley’s Chris Neil had 25 saves.

Big Red head coach Don Fosselman gave credit to Ripley, noting that the Vikings “have a nice team, and Pierson is a really good player. We had one of our best players, Parker Miller, marking him most of the game because we felt that strongly about it.”

Fosselman added that “we played a much better second half. But it was a good game, an interesting game. We need to do some things better, but I think we adjusted at halftime and came out and played so much better the second half than we did the first half.”

And Fosselman on the acrobatic saves by McKnight said, “he is so athletic, and such a good leader on this team, which is really pretty young. The kids look up to him.”

But more important stressed Fosselman, “we need to keep getting better every game. Our theme is that daily, we need to improve, even if it’s just a minor thing, just get better at it.”

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