SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

Time for a new thread....

I think this is a very interesting match up. Most people in D2 don't know a whole lot about ZT because they just moved up a division this year, but they are a solid team. I don't think either team has seen the other play.

Zane Trace's 2-0 win on the road against a 8-4-5 Bishop Hartley team is a nice result. Hartley plays a pretty tough schedule. This score showed me that ZT has the ability to get it done defensively.

The problem has been consistency for ZT. They beat an undefeated South Webster team then get hammered 5-1 by Wheelersburg at home the very next game. Tough one to figure out....

Marietta on the other hand has been a model of consistency. Marietta plays a much tougher schedule overall which should benefit them for this game. What stands out the most to me is the 14 "goals against" this year for Marietta over 18 games, with 9 shutouts. Very impressive. Marietta has also been very good offensively netting 55 goals.

My guess is Marietta will be able to score 2 or 3 on ZT but the Pioneers will struggle against Marietta to score.

Good luck to both teams. I think this promises to be a very entertaining match.

Prediction: Marietta 3 Zane Trace 1

Zane trace should be able to handle the pressure of the marietta offense. They have played at least 2 games on turf and i look for the speed of wells and the ball skills of wyatt smith to make life interesting. I forsee and overtime game being decided by pk's

Zane trace the final winner

I've only seen Zane Trace play early in the year against Chillicothe in a scrimmage... so take that into account in my statements.

Zane Trace is going to have to battle a good balanced attack, great free kick plays, and a steady defense. Marietta has a great deal more experience at this stage, having made it to the district final the last two years. One can't overestimate the importance of this. ZT is making their first trip into the DII ranks, which is very different than the districts of DIII. Marietta also have the tougher schedule overall.

I've seen Marietta twice this year against Athens, I have to say Marietta is the one of best all-around teams we've faced from the southeast. If Zane Trace tries to pull the half-field offside trap like they did against Chillicothe in the scrimmage, they'll get slaughtered. Again, I know it was a preseason game, but they had trouble being consistent even from one half to the next. There are some great athletes on ZT and if they're going to have a good chance against Marietta, they're going to have to have big nights and the ZT coaching staff (all fifteen of them, ha... joking) are going to need to be conservative on defense or get ripped apart by the spread out offense of Marietta.

I have no clue what the score could be, but I see Marietta advancing to their third straight final. But that's why they play the games. Good luck to both teams.

Marietta 1
Zane Trace 0

FINAL

Details?

Zane Trace had a solid outing. The score was 0-0 at half, with the play being very even. Neither side had very many quality opportunities in the first half.

It rained all night and the ball really skipped around on the turf. Neither side did a great job with possession..... the ball got kicked around quite a bit.

Marietta came out strong in the second half and got 3-4 quality opportunities on goal, mostly attributable to #4, Keith Schwendeman (sp). Marietta played many balls long, or through and he was able to get on the other end of a number of balls. He was able to get some 1 v 1's with the ZT defenders, and a couple break-a-ways. He scored on one of these about 10 min into the second half and it held up. Marietta had a number of good opportunities early in the second half (first 15 minutes) then the ZT defense seemed to settle back down and kept them in check the rest of the game.

ZT really picked up the pressure late (last 10 min or so) and came close to scoring a couple of times. Marietta's GK Stollar made a nice save on a wicked left-footed strike by Wyatt Smith of ZT around the top of the circle that looked to be going upper 90. Stollar played another solid game.

The ZT keeper made two phenomenal saves early in the second half that would have put the game out of reach for Marietta. He played a really great game.

Overall ZT had very few quality opportunities in the second half. Marietta had the better of the chances and the score seemed appropriate.

Hats off to ZT. They really showed well in their first season in D2 making it to the districts and holding their own against a very strong Marietta team. A break here or there and the outcome could have been reversed. Nice game.

Congrats to Marietta on making their third straight district final since joining DII. Very impressive. They won in 2007, were runners-up last year (after a shootout loss). We'll see how Saturday turns out. The only team in the southeast district to appear in more finals since the split to three divisions is Athens (appeared in and won four straight finals) .

Congrats to Zane Trace on a successful season. Sounds like they had a great game and are a tough addition to DII.