Morgantown topples South 2-1 in Class AAA championship match
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BECKLEY, W.Va. - The cyclical nature of high school sports caught up with the Parkersburg South girls soccer team.
According their coach, in recent years the Patriots had Morgantown's number. This season, the Mohigans turned the tables.
Saturday afternoon in the Class AAA state championship match played at the YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex, Gracie Brown converted on a penalty kick and scored the golden goal with 6:10 remaining in the first overtime to lift Morgantown to a 2-1 win over South.
Morgantown defeated the Patriots three times in as many meetings in 2022, including a pair of 2-0 wins during the regular season.
"Our girls played hard - they played their hearts out yesterday (in the semifinals) and today," South coach Ron Bucholtz said. "The two best teams in the state made it to the championship. Morgantown had our number this season. We've had their number the past several seasons. It comes around and goes around.
"We've been around the block with other teams on that."
South, working on a mere 15 hours of down time following a double overtime win Friday against George Washington, closes out the campaign at 19-5.
"It was a good, hard fought season," Bucholtz said. "We played today all banged up and battered - these girls were put together with a bunch of duct tape.
And for the second consecutive day, the Patriots were attempting to come from behind from a one-goal, halftime deficit. Their lone goal occurred as a result of a penalty kick from Adrienne Altizer, who tied the match at 1 with 21:19 remaining in regulation.
Altizer was initially denied by Morgantown starting keeper Madysen Scheller, but referees indicated Scheller left the keeper area too soon, so play was stopped two seconds later and a yellow card issued. The Mohigans had to send in reserve keeper Camdyn Smith for the do-over.
Altizer's mulligan found the back of the net and South was in business. Unfortunately, when the game ended in a 1-1 tie after regulation, a foul on a South player inside the box gave Brown the opportunity to end the match.
The Morgantown junior shot just inside left frame. South's freshman keeper Emilee Owens guessed correctly on direction but not the path of the ball.
"Emilee was right there - we sent her to the right direction," Bucholtz said. "We had seen the girl shoot one PK and it went high. She shot this one low and Emilee got her hand on it, she just missed it."
With players battling wind gusts in the 40-mile per hour range at times, Morgantown struck first. Brown sent a crossing pass to Cloe Ratliff, who sent the shot attempt into the upper left corner of the net to give the Mohigans a 1-0 lead at the 9:15 mark of the first half.
Ratliff scored just one goal in her previous 20 games.
"No matter if we beat South twice already, they are a good team," Morgantown coach Stirlin Rivers said after his club improved to 20-1-1. "Coach Ron does an excellent job - they are always in the top five in the state every single year since he has been coaching, so we expected nothing less than their best.
"We knew we had a good team coming into the season. We had the seniors who were freshman who were on the state championship team four years ago had the experience through the years. We knew we could challenge. These girls on the team took the information I gave them game after game and executed."
Brown had a hand in all three Morgantown goals scored in the two wins at the state tournament. The junior scored twice to go one assist.
"I owe it all to my seniors," Brown said. "They won their freshman year. I knew it would mean the world to them if they got another one their senior year. I just wanted to give back and make sure that happened."
As for Parkersburg South, the Patriots graduate six seniors (Erin Riesbeck, Lindsey Law, Mia Miller, Ava Barton, Mackenzie Mott and Alayna Goff) from the program.
"It's bittersweet that I got to come back to the state tournament for my senior year," said Riesbeck, who was a member of the most recent South team to advance to the state tournament, which resulted in a runner-up finish in 2020.
"I am going to remember the friendships of every single one of my teammates," added Riesbeck, who is still weighing her options on taking her soccer game to the next level. "Everyone on the team is so close."
Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com