SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

Waverly travels to Wheelersburg on Thursday for the first matchup of these two conference powers. Both teams are 1-0. JV starts at 5:30 with varsity to follow.

Always a war when these two battle. The Burg always rises to the occasion, especially at home. Paul Boll is a heck of a coach, always find the right combination of players.

hopefully, will be a good soc game. good to see the season underway. play well.

Waverly and Wheelersburg tie. 1-1

WOW, must have been a heck of a defensive game on the small field?
Burg came from behind to beat Northwest, are the Mohawks that much better than previous years?

IMO Northwest is going to shock some people this season. Very well coached team.

very good game hats off to the pirates for not quiting. If they continue to play that hard it should be a great year. After being down 1-0 most of the game they fought hard and tied it up late in the second

This was a very hard fought game by 2 good teams. Both teams had a few chances to break through. Waverly missed a couple early in the 2nd half to go up by 2 but Wheelersburg kept coming back and they got heck of a shot off on a ball that was failed to be cleared to tie the score. Waverly had 3 headers in the last couple minutes to win the game but were off frame. Burg has 2 very good players and played a very aggressive game. It's going to be a fun season.

Waverly took Burg's best player out of the game by marking him the entire night. He was not a factor in the game but the Pirates always find a way in any sport to win or at least in this case to come back to tie. He started to show his frustration but a yellow card before half seemed to modify his behavior.

Not sure you can call it "taking him out of the game." Actually he was marked by one player the entire game and several others marked him also to double and triple team him when he came into that area. I think he did his role to wear the marking players out therefore creating openings for the other forwards to score. He moved around the field so much, it took all Waverly's players out of their offense by marking him, so I think he did his job for the team. Burg had 5 breakaways from leaving another forward open that were totally overshot..... but if those balls would have found the back of the net, it could have been a different game.

He did get frustrated but so would anyone that was being held back by grabbing and holding and after 60 plus minutes, a foul was never called on any of those marking him. Not complaining about the holding and grabbing because that is the way good soccer is played away from southern ohio but it needs to be consistent. Refs in this area just usually call it but didnt this time. Actually, the same center ref called several fouls on burg for less. The yellow card was first awarded to the Waverly player by the center ref, then after the play, the linesman convinced the center ref to give him a yellow card also. Here is the situation: Wheelersburg had a free kick... at that point.... off a foul from Waverly. A Waverly player tried to stop the play byattempting get the ball and trying to stop the play. The Burg player, put his hand up to push the player away and said, "It's our ball." The Waverly player then pushed him back and the ref stopped the pushing. No card was awarded at that time. As the Burg Player proceeded to take the kick, the Waverly player stuck his foot out and shielded the ball. That is when the Waverly player received the yellow card. Moments later, the linesman convinced the center to give the Burg player a card also. If you know soccer, I think you would agree that sticking the foot out is an automatic yellow. Not sure why they carded the Burg player for that but sure it was for pushing earlier. If that is the case..... then the Waverly player, should have received a second yellow. This is frustrating to players when they know how the game and calls should work. Don't think the ref's calls made any decision in the final either way. Also, after the yellow card, the player moved back to defensive mid and center mid to keep possession of the ball to keep Waverly from finding the net.

It was a good game to watch. Many players left everything they had on that field. Nice to see players work so hard. Also nice to see aggressive play in Southern Ohio. This will help Southern Ohio teams in tournament play when they compete against Northern teams that are much more physical than we are here in this area. Refs in the Northern area tend to allow more physical play than they do here. Looking forward to many good matches this season.