GREENVILLE, Pa. — Freshman
Raeli Barnes (Vincent, Ohio/Warren) scored a hat trick leading Marietta College to a 3-2 win at Thiel College Tuesday (Sept. 27) in women's soccer action. The Pioneers improve to 6-3-1 on the season, the most wins for Marietta since winning eight games in 2007.
Anyone that was late arriving to the match missed some of the excitement as Thiel (1-7-1 overall) struck with lightning quickness. The Tomcats grabbed the lead with a goal just 16 seconds into the match. Katelyn Labos scored the first of her two goals on the night with an assist from Kaytee Candela.
"Obviously we were not ready to play from the kick off," Marietta head coach
Tracy Blasius said. "Give Thiel credit, they played well. They were very aggressive tonight."
Despite escaping with the one goal, come from behind victory, Marietta dominated the match from start to finish. It was target practice for the Pioneer strikers as Marietta outshot Thiel 30-9 on the night.
Thiel keeper Kim Gentry handled the barrage posting 16 saves in the match, including nine in the second half. In addition to all of the saves, she also limited Marietta to just one corner kick.
Barnes leveled the match, 1-1, with her first goal of the night in the 12th minute. Barnes took a cross from
Layne Archer (Duncan Falls, Ohio/Philo) and beat Gentry for the score.
Labos put the Tomcats back on top in the 26th minute off a corner kick. Maddie Sollers sent the corner into the box where Labos finished it off for a 2-1 Thiel lead.
Down a goal, Marietta kept the pressure on in the second half. For 25 minutes it appeared that Thiel might be able to withstand the onslaught and get the win. But Barnes again leveled the match with her second goal in the 71st minute.
Freshman
France Moise (Naples, Fla./Naples) fed the ball to Barnes who put it in the back of the net for the equalizer.
France's twin sister
Sophia Moise (Naples, Fla./Naples) got in on the action picking up the assist on the game winner in the 86th minute. Barnes took the short pass in the box from Sophia and then fired off the winning shot to notch her first career hat trick.
"I am proud that we were able to execute our game plan and slowly wear them down," Blasius said. "Raeli showed a tremendous amount of composure with three first class finishes. And seniors
Layne Archer (Duncan Falls, Ohio/Philo) and
Cassie Wint (Wooster, Ohio/Wooster) really lead us today."
Junior
Rebecca Tenney (Pepper Pike, Ohio/Orange) had three saves in goal for the Pioneers. Wint,
Jorden Stuart (Huber Heights, Ohio/Wayne),
Brittany Palm (Prosperity, Pa./McGuffey) and
Amanda Augustyniak (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington Central) anchored the Marietta back line.
Marietta opens Ohio Athletic Conference play on Saturday (Oct. 1) at Baldwin Wallace University. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
