Photo by Jay W. Bennett Parkersburg High School senior midfielder Keegan Bush steals the ball from George Washington’s Matthew Vaughn during Tuesday’s match at Ohio Valley University. The visiting Patriots posted a 3-0 victory.

VIENNA — Class AAA defending state champion George Washington pitched its second shutout of the season as the visiting Patriots topped Parkersburg, 3-0, here Tuesday evening in a Mountain State Athletic Conference match played at Ohio Valley University.

The Big Reds of head man Don Fosselman, who are still in search of win No. 500, fell behind 2-0 early and couldn’t manage to break through against a GW defense led by returning first team all-stater Zak Abdul-Jalil.

“There’s no quit in our team and I’m so proud of that,” admitted Fosselman, whose squad is tentatively scheduled to return to action at 6 p.m. Thursday back at OVU versus Hurricane. “That’s something that comes from being a winner their whole life and they displayed it.

“GW was really good. I think our ceiling is so high. We changed our lineup completely in the second half. We had people in there I didn’t think could do the job, but everyone stepped up and did a nice job tonight. I’m really proud of our guys. GW, they are a super team.”

With six ticks left in the opening minute, Robby Nunley’s cross into the box turned into a goal thanks to a perfectly placed header by EJ Davis, who beat Big Red keeper Caleb Thomas.

Parkersburg, which opened last Friday with a 1-1 draw versus Jefferson, tried to answer early in the fifth minute. However, Ashton Farnsworth’s cross to Tanner Stauffer didn’t materialize and GW quickly went into strike mode. With 4:40 elapsed in the first half the 2-0 Patriots of head coach Erik Engle, who won 6-0 at Morgantown on Saturday, found the back of the net again on a header. This time, Davis was on the right side of the field and sent a long cross to the other side. As it turned out, Max Trethewey was outside the left post, headed it and watched it sneak inside the far right post to give the visitors all the momentum.

“We need, ourselves, to play quicker. We need to be one or two touches and we’re not right now,” added Fosselman, who watched Logan Henthorn clear out Patriot Solomon Clark’s third corner kick in the 13th minute. “We feel like we have to take that third and fourth touch and you saw what happened when we took the third and fourth touch.

“They just cleaned us. We need to be pulling the rope in the same direction and we’re slowly doing that. We are. I’m playing six sophomores. I mean that’s unheard of and they are all contributing and doing a nice job.”

Parkersburg had a free kick outside the box in the 19th minute, but Farnsworth’s pass down the left side to Terrance Wright failed to turn into a shot. Farnsworth also had a through to teammate Kota Butcher in the 27th minute, but it was just long.

The Patriots had a pair of other prime scoring chances in the first half. Davis, who tallied his third goal of the season with 4:29 left in the match via a Hazem Attal assist, had his header go just wide in the 28th minute from teammate Matthew Vaughn’s pass. Just before intermission, Abdul-Jalil’s header was blocked in the box.

Parkersburg’s defense continued to stay strong as Big Reds Evan Stavrakis and Riley Smith turned away a Nunley run down the sideline in the 45th minute. Four minutes later, Keegan Bush cleared another GW corner off the foot of Clark.

PHS had a direct kick in the 51st minute outside the box by Farnsworth, but Patriot Dylan Lewis cleared it to safety before keeper Kevin Tiffey even had a chance to make a play.

Clark nearly scored his first goal of the campaign in the 57th minute as the ball hit the bottom of the crossbar, deflected down, went back up to the top of the goal and then out, but it wasn’t ruled to have crossed the line.

The Big Reds, who got 11 saves from Thomas, had their lone corner in the 65th minute, which was taken by Wright, but Vaughn was there to make the defensive clear.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

George Washington boys 3,

Parkersburg 0

at Ohio Valley University

GW (2-0-0) 2 1 — 3

PHS (0-1-1) 0 0 — 0

GW: EJ Davis (assist Robby Nunley) 1st minute

GW: Max Trethewey (assist Davis) 5th minute

GW: Davis (assist Hazem Attal) 76th minute

Shots on goal: GW 14, PHS 0; Corner kicks: GW 6, PHS 1; Keeper saves: GW 0 (Kevin Tiffey), PHS 11 (Caleb Thomas)

Next matches: Hurricane vs. PHS 6 p.m. Thursday at Ohio Valley (varsity only, tentative); George Washington vs. Westerville Central, 10 a.m. Saturday in Columbus.