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Game of bounces: Tigers stun Big Reds in 2-1 victory

By Jordan Holland 6 min read

DEVOLA -- Marietta was 15 minutes away from its first loss of the 2026 season.

The Tigers made those 15 minutes count, rallying for a 2-1 win over Parkersburg in the Cross River Rivalry Tuesday at Jerry Brock Field.

Trailing 1-0, Grace Spencer tied it up on a penalty kick at the 14:45 mark. With 57 seconds left, a Tiger shot attempt was saved by PHS keeper Addison Mosco, but the ball ricocheted to Marietta's Fiona Fowler, who buried it into the back of the net as the Tigers improved to 7-0-1 on the season.

"Fee was right there to finish it," said Marietta head coach Bill Mannix.

"Our girls have no quit, which is good. They have a lot of heart, and they really listened at halftime and made the adjustments."

As the final horn sounded, the Big Reds walked off the pitch shell-shocked.

"I’m so speechless," said PHS head coach Jarric Hoskins.

"Soccer is a game of bounces. It was literally just two bounces not in our favor tonight. That was the difference."

Marietta had not allowed a goal all season, but that changed with 21:17 on the clock in the first half Tuesday.

A PHS free kick hit off a Marietta player and bounced up to Laekyn Hart. Tiger keeper Maura Misle had raced out to collect the ball, but Hart was able to head it past Misel, and the ball rolled into the goal to put the Big Reds up 1-0.

"It was a poorly executed free kick by us," Mannix said. "We didn’t defend it very well. It was sort of a tweener. We tend to put a lot of hope in Maura. The free kick gets taken -- 'Oh, Maura’s got it.' It’s one of those things that you have to stay with your runner. We work on that, and we’ll change our execution."

Hart's coaches have been pushing for her to use her head more, and she came through in this instance.

"I gotta give credit to Laekyn," Hoskins laughed. "We’ve been giving her kind of a tough time about using her head. We’ve been encouraging her to use her head in those situations, especially with her height. We kind of had a ball pop free there, and she perfectly, you know, used her head."

The Big Reds took the 1-0 advantage into halftime, and the lead stood up for the first 20 minutes of the second half, too.

With 17:20 remaining, Spencer lined up for a direct kick and put it on target, but Mosco went up and got two hands on it, smacking it over the crossbar to preserve the lead.

"She played an amazing game," Hoskins said of his sophomore goalie, who finished with 10 saves. "I know that she definitely took that to heart, but she can’t fault herself on that. She played an amazing game. She made a lot of incredible saves. Sometimes the ball just simply does not bounce your way."

With 14:45 left, Fowler's corner kick resulted in a handball by PHS, setting up Spencer's penalty kick to knot it up at 1-apiece.

"Unfortunate handball for that girl in the box," Mannix said. "That’s part of soccer. I feel bad for her, but again, Grace stood up down 0-1, looking to try to get caught back up, and her coming in and draining that PK got the energy back for us."

Hoskins added, "That’s unfortunate. That’s unlucky. We got to learn from it, got to keep our heads up."

As the final minutes ticked off the clock, a 1-1 draw appeared all but certain, but Fowler had other ideas. Hoskins thought maybe fatigue played a factor down the stretch for PHS, which he took accountability for.

"First half, came out very strong," he said. "Second half, we were a little bit tired. That’s on me. I needed to get more people in and out of the game there, especially towards the end of the second half, just because we looked like we had some tiring legs out there towards the end. We tried to fight through it. We fought hard to the end. It just -- yeah, that’s tough."

Misel finished with five saves on six Parkersburg shots on goal. The Tigers had 12 shots on frame, and held a 7-5 advantage on corner kicks.

"Their keeper had a couple of really nice saves," Mannix said. "We had quite a few corner kicks, so we had a lot more chances on their end. They’re a good team. They’re fast. They have a good style.

"Parkersburg really dictated the tempo in the first half. They were winning every second ball. They clearly had a good game plan against us. We do a good job winning the first ball there, and they were snagging that second ball every time, and really doing a good job bringing it down, then immediately countering us every single time. So we were constantly chasing. We really never could get the ball down and get settled into our game. I think we were kind of taken back how aggressive Parkersburg was, and we let them kind of dictate all the tempo. I think the second half we played a lot better and a lot more like we wanted to play."

The Tigers get a day off Wednesday before heading to Alexander on Thursday.

"Everything we do from now through the next several weeks is just getting ready for a continued run in the tournament at the end of the year," Mannix said. "Parkersburg, we like playing them every year because they always have a good team. Jarric does a really nice job. He’s a good coach. They’re very disciplined. They’re a very solid team."

This will be a tough one to shake off for the Big Reds, but that's exactly what they'll look to do with a strong Huntington squad coming to town Thursday.

"That’s definitely one that we’d like to have back, but we played incredibly well," Hoskins said. "Credit to Marietta. They didn’t give up. They kept fighting, and, yeah. It’s unlucky."

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@mariettatimes.com.

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