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Revenge game: Tigers clip Falcons, 2-1

By Jordan Holland 6 min read

DEVOLA -- In a fitting twist of fate, Saturday's Marietta-Fairfield Union postseason rematch featured a pivotal penalty kick.

In last year's district quarterfinals, the Falcons eliminated the Tigers on penalty kicks.

Fast-forward to the 27th minute of Saturday's regular season bout, Marietta keeper Finn Tindall was having a bit of deja vu as Fairfield Union's Nicholas Henwood stepped up for a PK try.

With the Falcons trying to erase a 1-0 deficit, Henwood fired the ball to the right side of the goal. Tindall read it perfectly and made a diving stop, but the ball caromed awkwardly and rolled slowly back toward Henwood. Henwood charged and got his foot on it, but Tindall was able to crawl back into position to secure the save.

MHS went on to win 2-1 to get some revenge from last year's heart-breaker.

"Last year they took us out of the district running in the quarterfinals on penalties, so it definitely feels good to be able to put them away and get them back," said Tindall, who was credited with 14 saves in the match.

"Those are such a -- it’s such an advantage for the kicker, obviously," said Marietta head coach Todd Morris. "For Finn to make the initial save, and for the luck to have it to bounce right back to the kid, you know, and for Finn to be able to get up and put his body in a position to take the second save, that was just huge for us. Finn’s one to do that. That’s what you expect from your goalkeeper is for him to bail you out when you need to get bailed out, and we have one of the best to do that."

Allowing PK tries has become somewhat of a theme for the Tigers this season, which has allowed Tindall to grow comfortable against them. Saturday's save was his first against a penalty kick in 2026.

"We’ve had so many pens this season so far," the junior goalie said. "We’ve had, I don’t even know how many, six penalties, maybe five penalties. We have a penalty almost every game, so that’s starting to get routine. Every time, I’ve dove the right way, just been out of reach. On that one, I read it right. I got my hand to it, and I got up for the second. Usually, if those bounce back like that, you don’t get a chance to get them again. But luckily, he fumbled it a bit, and I was able to get back up and save it."

Tindall expanded on his approach to defending penalty kicks.

"You can educated guess it," he said. "You can look at the way that they’re setting up. You can look at their body language, which way they’re looking. I’ve guessed right every single time, so I’ve got it down."

Marietta struck quickly in the fourth minute when Maddox Broomfield's corner kick resulted in a header by Graesyn Moat to make it 1-0.

"That’s what we want on corner kicks is to just put the ball in dangerous areas," Morris said. "Maddox did a great job to put the ball in a dangerous area. Graesyn Moat was fantastic again."

The score held there until the 28:09 mark of the second half, when Kingston McMahon created an impressive shot through traffic that rolled just out the reach of FUHS keeper Corbin Spicer to make it 2-nil.

"The ball just kind of popped to him and, you know, if you put your shots on frame, good things can happen," Morris said. "Make the keeper make a save, and I don't think their keeper saw it until late because there was a bunch of people around, and Kingston just was able to sneak it through."

Fairfield Union, which fell to 4-2-1 on the season, didn't go quietly. With 22:07 remaining, Graham Forquer cut the deficit in half when his long-range shot sailed over a leaping Tindall. From there, it was an all-out battle to the final whistle.

"Guys just worked their tails off to defend the last 10 minutes," Morris said.

"Fairfield Union is always such a quality side. Coach (Jarrod Redding) runs a great program. We were obviously really, really enhanced by playing on our pitch. We had a great energy tonight, got off to the early start, felt pretty good up 2-0, and then they got that goal."

Marietta did a good job limiting Fairfield Union's scoring chances down the stretch, until a foul with 11 seconds left set the Falcons up with a direct kick from about 20 yards out, but Graeson Redding's kick sailed well over the goal as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

"That made for a heart-stopping extra few seconds there, but our guys saw it out," said Morris, whose Tigers improved to 2-1-2 and head to Warren on Tuesday. "This is a well-earned win for them. Our whole back line was really solid -- Carson Hamilton, Noah Zacharias, Eli Dumbarter, Des Bigley -- just really, really solid for us. That’s a really good offensive team, and to hold them to one goal -- obviously, they had looks, but that’s why you have a goalkeeper. At the end of the day, this is a really big win for us against a really good team."

Marietta leads the all-time series against FUHS 7-3, but the Falcons have been a thorn in the Tigers' side in recent years. In addition to beating them twice last year, Fairfield Union ousted MHS in the 2023 regional semifinals.

"Two great teams that really, really play hard," said Coach Redding. "We’ve had just a ton of battles over the last few years, and when you look at our district, it’s going to be very, very difficult because there’s many teams like us that play hard, play physical, play really good soccer. It’s really, who can come up with that fantastic save? Obviously, they had that tonight. That’s the only thing that’s going to separate because Marietta’s fantastic. You play games like this and you look forward to hopefully getting them again in the tournament, so that’s what we're going to shoot for."

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@newsandsentinel.com.

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