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Put it on the board: PHS girls record first win, defeat Cabell Midland 1-0

By Jay W. Bennett 4 min read

PARKERSBURG – Reagan Ashley drilled the crossbar in the 65th minute and Aelissa Stavrakis did the same in the third minute here Tuesday night at Stadium Field, but teammate Hailey Warman tallied the lone goal during Parkersburg's 1-0 Mountain State Athletic Conference victory versus Cabell Midland.

The Knights, who slipped to 1-2 for head coach Andy Wilson, had the first shot on goal in each half thanks to Tatum Arbes and Ansley Call, but couldn't find a way to get one past Big Red keeper Addi Mosso during her five save clean sheet.

"I thought we played well. I thought for the most part we tried to possess," admitted PHS head coach Jarric Hoskins.

"The big difference was we kind of got in the game of playing kickball a little bit and started to lose a little bit of organization, but we created a lot of chances."

CM keeper Grace Dailey, who made 10 saves, was the hard-luck loser.

The lone goal of the match came a dozen ticks into the 14th minute when Warman found the back of the net after putting home a ball that was deflected by a Knight defender following a shot by Big Red Malaya Bowling.

"We're young and we got six freshmen we start and play a lot," admitted coach Wilson, whose squad nearly left town with a draw. "It’s all a learning process. For us, it’s hard to come up here and play on a week night.

"It took us a while to get going. We don’t have any seniors so for us it’s all a learning process. We hope by the end they will put it all together and hopefully do some things. We’re getting a little better each time."

In the final 11 minutes of action, the Knights had a trio of corner kicks from Olive Graham but couldn't find an answer.

Graham also did some nifty dribbling in the 74th minute to get herself open for a shot in the box, but the ball drilled the inside bottom of the left post and no one was in the area for an attempted putback.

Cabell Midland, which was originally scheduled to play host to Spring Valley on Thursday but instead now heads to the Timberwolves for a 5:30 p.m. match, also had a quality shot on goal in the 80th minute from Kaylee Adkins.

"A lot of really good looks," Hoskins stressed. "Hopefully, more practice we start getting some of those shots to go in the net, but pretty positive with the looks we are getting. I thought we did a good job of trying to position our crosses low to a far post. A lot of positives to take away from it, but a lot of things to probably work on and get better at going forward.

"I think our effort was good all around, definitely at the end when they started pushing and really being a threat there at the end I thought we still had good effort to cover second balls and get to loose balls and get to the 50-50 balls. It was a good effort from start to finish."

Stavrakis had a pair of shots on frame before Warman tallied her first goal of the campaign.

The Big Reds also had a pair of shots on goal in the first half by Emma Morris and one apiece from Ashley and Addi Cameron.

Parkersburg, which will carry a 1-0-1 mark when South Charleston invades at 6 p.m. Thursday, doubled up the Knights on corner kicks, 8-4.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

At PHS Stadium Field

Parkersburg girls 1, Cabell Midland 0

CM (1-2) 0 0 – 0

PHS (1-0-1) 1 0 – 1

PHS: Hailey Warman (unassisted) 14th minute

Shots on goal: CM 5, PHS 11; Corner kicks: CM 4, PHS 8; Keeper saves: CM 10 (Grace Dailey), PHS 5 (Addi Mosso 5)

Next matches: Cabell Midland at Spring Valley, 5:30 p.m. Thursday; South Charleston at Parkersburg, 6 p.m. Thursday.

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