Sports
Marietta Blanks Defiance In Opener
By: Brad Friedman
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The Tracy Blasius era got off to a hot start today when the Pioneers won their first regular season game 2-0 over Defiance College.
Marietta came out firing from the opening whistle, blasting 18 shots at Defiance goalkeeper Claire Turner.
It only took five minutes of play for one of the shots to get past Turner when senior Stacey Smith found the back of the net on a chip shot to the center of the goal.
Blasius and her squad was ecstatic to get on the board early.
“It was a really big lift for us emotionally,” Blasius said.
65 minutes of play later, junior Stevie Riley threw in a cross from the right corner and senior Emily Jones did the rest, putting the ball in the top left corner of the net, extending Marietta’s lead to two.
On the defensive side, Pioneer senior goalkeeper Kaitlyn Pearse also got some work Friday, defending 12 Yellow Jacket shots, nine of which were on target and required a reaction from Pearse.
Both teams had ample opportunities in their respective offensive halves; Marietta drew eight corner kicks while Defiance had four.
The Pioneers played aggressively, but their aggression led to five fouls and two offside calls.
Blasius applauded her team’s efforts despite the warm weather in which they were playing.
“It was hot, but they sucked it up and put in a lot of effort,” Blasius said.
The Pioneers don’t have much time to celebrate; they take on Westminster College at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
The first-year coach said that her squad can build off of this victory moving forward.
“We’re going to be tired, but we’re trying to get better every day.”