Red Riders, Big Red battle to draw
Andrew Grimm CHASING — Big Red's Tessa Rusnak and Weir High's Kameryn Mallas pursue the ball during Tuesday's match.
Andrew Grimm ADVANCING — Weir High's Giana Siegel looks to get the ball past Big Red's Ali Pierce.
Andrew Grimm IN CONTROL — Big Red's Jaylin Crites gains possession of the ball.
Andrew Grimm IN POSSESSION — Weir High's Kameryn Mallas controls the ball.
Andrew Grimm ON THE MOVE — Big Red's Lucy Saccoccia advances the ball.
Andrew Grimm CHASING — Big Red's Tessa Rusnak and Weir High's Kameryn Mallas pursue the ball during Tuesday's match.
Andrew Grimm ADVANCING — Weir High's Giana Siegel looks to get the ball past Big Red's Ali Pierce.
Andrew Grimm IN CONTROL — Big Red's Jaylin Crites gains possession of the ball.
Andrew Grimm IN POSSESSION — Weir High's Kameryn Mallas controls the ball.
Andrew Grimm ON THE MOVE — Big Red's Lucy Saccoccia advances the ball.
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WEIRTON -- depending on the circumstances, a tie can feel very different.
For Weir High on Tuesday, battling Big Red to 3-3 draw after losing its first three games almost felt like a win, despite allowing a tying goal with just over a minute to play.
“We’re young, this is our first game with a full compliment of players and it showed,” Weir head coach Jeremy Angelo. “We played hard. We were 0-3 coming in and 0-3-1 is a lot better than 0-4. We’re getting better each game, we played really hard against a very good team. Overall I’m happy with this one.
“Big Red is a very good team, they move the ball, pass well and open things up. They’re a fun team to watch. Good teams are fun to watch, it’s funner to watch them play someone else than to coach against them, but our girls played very hard and I’m happy that we were able to compete with them.”
For Big Red, despite fighting back to knot the score and avoid a loss, it left them wanting more.
“We just didn’t play as well as we know we can,” Big Red head coach Annie Cutri said. “I don’t feel like we played as hard as we know we can. We did not play like we did against St. Clairsville on Saturday.
“Kudos to Jeremy and his team, he always has his girls playing hard and it’s fun to coach against him. They played well.”
After spending much of the first half in their own end on their heels, but managing to trail just 1-0 at the break, the Red Riders (0-3-1) came out much different in the second half, scoring twice in the first five minutes after the break and having another golden opportunity bounce off the post in between.
The Red Riders’ Giana Siegel scored on a rush just 48 seconds into the second half to knot the game up, then had another chance hit the post before Ryann Jeter found a loose rebound and gave the Red Riders the lead in the 45th minute, less than four minutes after Siegel’s goal.
Big Red (2-1-2), which had chance after chance in the opening half and had led on a late first half goal from Brynn Bowers, battled back to tie the game up at 2-2 with a Gianna Thomas goal in the 55th minute.
About 10 minutes later, though, Siegel again had a golden opportunity, getting some space with a great move around a defender and firing a shot that just snuck through the goalkeeper to put the Red Riders on top with 15 minutes to play.
Faced with defeat, Big Red then turned up the pressure, peppering Weir keeper Bella Weber in the final 10 minutes of the game.
The senior keeper came up with six big stops before a loose ball in the box was finally directed in out of a crowd in front of the goal with 1:03 left to play. forcing the tie.
UP NEXT
Big Red: Travels to University on Saturday for a big OVAC Class 5A match up.
Weir High: Hits the road to Williamstown on Saturday for a big Region 1 match up.