Trending
The Marietta College women’s soccer team welcomed in a very tough Mount St. Joseph squad on Wednesday and despite giving up a first half goal, came back in the second half to earn a hard-fought 1-1 draw with the Lions at Marietta Field. With the result, the Pioneers move to 2-5-2 on the season, while the Lions shift to 4-2-2 overall.
“Proud of the adjustments we made at halftime to get back into the match,” said Marietta head coach Zack Votra. “We need to start quicker moving forward."
Mount St. Joseph struck early in the 9th minute of the opening period. Preslee Rugg stole a pass and found herself one-on-one with Pioneer goalkeeper Francesca Agliolo. Her shot snuck by and put the Lions ahead 1-0 on an unassisted strike. The Lions pushed hard to expand their advantage, testing the Marietta backline with 12 total shots and five corner kicks. Agliolo produced six first-half saves to keep the deficit at one heading into halftime.
Marietta’s persistence paid off late in the second half. Katie Heighberger found the back of the net in the 79th minute off of setup passes from Claire Warren and Jaylyn Thornton to level the match at 1-1. The Pioneer defense stifled Mount St. Joseph throughout the second half, allowing just two total shot attempts in the final 45 minutes and zero on goal to secure the draw.
MSJ narrowly held the overall shot edge (14-12), but Marietta controlled the offensive momentum in the second half, out shooting the Lions 7-2. Both teams also registered seven shots on goal.
Agliolo went the full 90 minutes in net, recording six saves against 14 total shots faced for the Pioneers. MSJ’s Megan Kallmeyer turned away six of Marietta’s seven shots on goal over 90 minutes.
Marietta will take to the road this Saturday as they will open their conference portion of the schedule at Ohio Northern. The men’s soccer team will play at 1 p.m. and the women will follow with a match scheduled for 4 p.m.