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Marietta girls oust Warren in district quarterfinals

By Jordan Holland 5 min read

DEVOLA -- An own goal two minutes into the second half was the difference Wednesday at Jerry Brock Field as top-seeded Marietta held off an upset-minded Warren squad in the Division III Southeast District quarterfinals.

"This is my first time ever playing Warren in the tournament, and they gave us all we wanted," said Marietta head coach Bill Mannix. "They were a totally different team tonight. They were aggressive everywhere. They’re just a good team."

The Tigers, who improved to 14-1-2 on the year, allowed just one shot on goal. They dominated possession most of the match, but the Warriors, who finished with a 7-9-2 record, held firm on the back end.

Warren keeper Sydney Brothers saved six of Marietta's seven shots on target in the contest. It was a Grace Spencer corner kick at the 37:46 mark in the second half that deflected off a Warrior and into the net that gave the Tigers the advantage.

"Unfortunately, we scored on ourselves tonight, so in my mind, the score was 0-0," said Warren head coach Kylee Evans.

"I told the girls, 'We got to let this hurt for a little bit, but take a lesson learned from it.' At the end of the day, we gave everything we had, and we survived 79 minutes of that match, and just let one corner take a deflection off us, and that was the decision maker."

The goal came on the Tigers' sixth corner kick of the match. They finished with 11 total.

"It's rare that we wouldn’t score more on that, but they defended it well," Mannix said. "They came out and worked."

Evans added, "Marietta is solid on corners. I don’t know their stats, but they convert a lot of corner kicks. I did not want to give up that many corners, but I was really proud of us for, 95% of them, we were able to clear."

Coincidentally, the Warriors' closest scoring opportunity came off their only corner kick of the contest. With 18 minutes remaining in the match, Warren's corner ricocheted in front of the goal. Callie Parsons tried to beat MHS keeper Maura Misel to the ball, but the two ended up colliding and Parsons was issued a yellow card.

"We worked and limited their chances, which was good," Mannix said. "I don’t think they had an actual shot on goal, to my knowledge, so we worked really hard. We just didn’t get the combinations we needed to get the ball into the scoring zone. We only needed one to win."

For Misel, it was her 12th clean sheet of the season, with an assist to defenders Adelyn Whited, Alaina Merrill, Alexa Miller and Karsyn Huck. The Tigers, who have won four in a row and five of their last six, will take on Miami Trace at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Logan High School in the district semis. The fourth-seeded Panthers defeated fifth-seeded Unioto 2-0 on Wednesday.

"We focused on this game tonight and the importance of this specific game," Mannix said. "Now, we’ll turn our thoughts to Miami Trace on Monday night. Just have to continue to play at the pace we can. I don’t think it was our technically best game tonight. We’ve played some really talented teams and had some good success against them, where we were possessing and holding and moving around and everything else. We just really never got in the rhythm tonight. I think both teams played with a lot of energy, which is what you really want."

Warren, which graduates four seniors, had an up and down year that included a seven-game losing skid followed by a five-game win streak to end the regular season.

"We did have some momentum," Evans said. "We really were down the middle of the year, and I’m just proud the girls were battling back, especially these last five games. We’ve been able to find a way to win, and was hoping we could do that tonight. Credit to Marietta. Their record speaks for themselves. I’m just so proud of us for hanging in there and making it a fight."

Marietta is four years removed from a Final Four appearance and has claimed three district titles in the last four seasons. That kind of tournament experience pays off on a night like Wednesday.

"We’ve had a lot of girls that played a lot of time in a lot of tournament games," Mannix said. "I don’t think anyone really panicked. We just couldn’t really make that small adjustment. We tried. They had a good tactic for us. They were where we were playing the ball, and we never adjusted from that. We never panicked. We really never gave up a good chance on our goal, which is good."

The young Warriors haven't been battle-tested like the Tigers, but Evans believes Wednesday's match is something the program can build on.

"(Tournament experience) is something that we lack, but I think we rose to the occasion," Evans said. "I think we played with tournament intensity, and we left everything we had on the field, and that’s all you can ask for."

Warren is hoping to see its rivals make a deep postseason run.

"We’re rooting for Marietta," Evans said. "If it’s going to be anybody, that’s how we want to go out. We want to go out to Marietta. We want to go out to the best. We’ll go back and rebuild."

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@mariettatimes.com.

At Jerry Brock Field

Division III Southeast District Quarterfinal

Marietta 1, Warren 0

W (7-9-2) 0 0 -- 0

M (14-1-2) 0 1 -- 1

M: own goal, Grace Spencer corner kick, 43rd minute

Team stats

Shots on goal: W: 1; M: 7; Keeper saves: W: Sydney Brothers 6; M: Maura Misel 1; Corner kicks: W: 1; M: 11

Next match: Warren vs. Miami Trace, 5:30 p.m. Monday at Logan (District Semifinal)

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