Patriot girls flatten Riders
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PARKERSBURG -- The Parkersburg South girls only needed one half of action to put an exclamation point on a victory against Weir. Head coach Ron Bucholtz's squad is already crushing all comers early in the season, and Weir was no exception on Saturday afternoon when it entered the Erickson All-Sports Facility. All nine of South's goals came in the first half in a 9-0 rout, and the Patriots got to work right away.
In what Samara Nunn found out was the fastest goal in school history, she capitalized on a cross from Jozy Barton and found the back of the net in only 16 seconds.
"Well, I found out it's the new record for our school, so that's cool. Yeah, if we starting coming out like that in every game, we're going to be unstoppable," Nunn said following the lopsided outcome.
"We just came out on our toes, and we were ready to play. We had a really good team from last year, but the freshmen this year have really stepped up. They're really good players. We can score as many goals as we want, but we just want to be the best team we can. If we can make better combinations to make those goals. We didn't score in the second half, because we were trying to aim for two players. We're working on swinging the ball, our crosses and possession. When it comes to the better teams, it's going to be harder, so we've got to be ready and prepare for it."
If that first goal somehow wasn't fast enough, Ava Barton scored her first goal in the 2nd minute in a one-on-one encounter with Weir goalie, Raya Hoover. The hits kept coming for the tested Hoover, as Nunn made the most of a crisp pass from Adi Altizer to score once more in the 13th minute. Altizer and company kept the beat going with timely ball movement, but the dominance over Weir was two-fold. Defensively, the Patriots gave the Red Riders no breathing room. South's 22 shots on goal and seven corner kicks were a sharp contrast to Weir's zeroes in the shots on goal and corner kicks categories. That gave South more opportunities to create separation, and the juggernaut did not slow down.
Cameron Limer lined up for a corner kick in the 17th minute which ricocheted off Hoover's hand and into the goal for another score at 4-0. Altizer fired another key pass to Mia Miller, who scored two minutes later. Then, Jozy Barton notched her second assist by finding Kyra Sandy in front of the net for the team's sixth goal of the afternoon. Ava Barton joined Nunn with her second goal of the match, and it was Nunn who assisted her on the tally one minute after Sandy's goal in the 27th minute. Nunn's second assist came when Riley Shockey got open and extended Hoover's already long day. The barrage of goals finally ended after Limer found Altizer in the 38th minute. It's all a part of Bucholtz's plan to spread the scoring around, and it worked how he drew it up. At 4-0 on the year, South is on the fast track to seeking bigger expectations in 2021, and the young season continues for them at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday when they take the Erickson pitch against Dover.
"I wanted them to start hard, because I know we've got some tougher games coming up. We wanted to come out of the gate swinging for the fences," Bucholtz said. You can't complain being up 2-0 in the first couple minutes. I was pleased with how we played. We passed the ball around very sharply, and there was a lot of good decision making. The finishing has been outstanding this season, so that's an improvement over past years. We're stronger offensively, but we're every bit as strong in the midfield and defensively. I don't think we've missed a beat from last year. We will see going forward when we start going into tougher competition."