WILLIAMSTOWN — Ella McMullen assisted on goals by Emily Bailey and Emma Berman here Thursday during senior night for host Williamstown and keeper Sophie Folwell saved a penalty kick as the host Yellowjackets blanked Marietta, 2-0.

Prior to the match, the now 9-4 Yellowjackets of head coach Ben Rinehart honored seniors Folwell, McMullen, Berman, Lydia Conner, Julie Elliott, Natalie Chambers, Jaina Rinehart and London Flores.

“The thing that I enjoy the most is just the fact to see these girls playing with the heart and determination, particularly on senior night,” said coach Rinehart, whose club returns to action noon Saturday at Sissonville.

“That game could’ve went either way and we made the plays that we needed to. It’s just a great night to be a Yellowjacket, for sure.”

Tiger keeper Leigha Lauer made an early save on Shelby Smith, but with 43 seconds left in the ninth minute McMullen got the ball to Bailey, who hit a shot that a leaping Lauer got a glove on but still managed to find the back of the net.

“It means a lot, the win, especially with this group of girls,” McMullen said. “We’ve come so far together. It’s really, really exciting to have this win this year. This game is just always so tense between the two of us. We know each other.

“We want to play well and we always bring out such a big crowd to these games. It’s always just a really tense match for both of us. It’s just a really exciting game every year.”

Marietta’s first shot on goal came in the 18th minute from Lexi Brown.

However, the final tally of the match came in the 25th minute when McMullen got the ball in the middle of the field to Berman and she put it home.

“It was really great,” admitted Berman. “Ella had a great ball to me down the middle and she sends great balls to me all the time. She’s my number one. It was sketch with the goalie because she comes out and she’s really good at her job, but it was fun.

“The middle is like our specialty and we saw it was working. It feels pretty amazing. These are my favorite girls. We’ve been together since pretty much freshman year and it’s just full of positivity and they are great to be around.”

The Tigers of head coach Bill Mannix, now 6-4-2 with a home match at 7 p.m. Tuesday versus Cambridge, also had shots on goal late in the first half by Claire Schenkel and Kenzley Urban.

A foul by WHS with 1:06 remaining before intermission gave Schenkel a chance at a penalty kick, but Folwell was there for one of her nine saves.

“I just do my best to read and then I have to commit to a side and I picked right this time. I tried to read her a little bit,” said Folwell, who noted a lot of the players for both programs compete on the same travel team. “I think our midfield did a really good job of coming back and helping with defense, and the midfield and defense did a really good job at just a lockdown game.

“It made my job a lot easier. It’s really special and it’s a good feeling to get to play with my teammates that I’ve played with my whole life against my teammates I’ve played my whole life with. Most of us seniors played a lot of travel with most of them.”

Lauer finished with eight saves, but the Tiger defense only allowed three shots on goal after the break — one each by Bailey, Lehyla Ireland and Smith.

MHS wasn’t able to get one past Folwell despite good looks from Millie Becker, Chloe Chen and Urban.

“Williamstown came out and played very aggressive and they played right from the first minute and we decided to play starting about the 25th minute,” said coach Mannix, whose team held a 3-1 advantage in corner kicks. “I think the game was pretty even after 25 minutes. We had lots of chances in the second half and just couldn’t get it done.”

Prior to falling behind 2-0, Tiger Riley Medley had a deep throw-in, but Williamstown’s Livi Rinard was there to clear it. Rinehart was able to clear a potential Tiger chance in the 27th minute. MHS also couldn’t take advantage in the 37th minute when a Chen pass went to Brown and her cross to Jocelyn Rings resulted in a shot that went wide.

“It was a good night. Always hats off to coach Mannix, coach (Tim) Mullen and coach (Ben) Schenkel. That is such a good group over there,” added coach Rinehart. “They fought for 80 minutes and our girls did too. That’s exactly what we need to continue to reach our goals. Ella McMullen had a killer night tonight. She made great decisions.

“Her passing was great. She seemed to be everywhere. She was flying to the ball and that’s not to take away from the effort of the entire team. Really, getting healthy on defense helped out and you could tell we had some key moments back there where it looked like they might have a breakaway and our defense stepped up.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com