Photo by Cody Nespor Wheeling Central forward Brooke Porter, right, scores a goal past John Marshall goalkeeper Jhett Corley, left, during the Maroons Knights’ 4-0 victory Tuesday.

MOUNDSVILLE — Wheeling Central earned a hard-fought shutout on the road at John Marshall Tuesday, prevailing 4-0.

Despite dominating time of possession, the Maroon Knights (7-4-1) were not able to generate many quality chances against the Monarchs’ (1-10-1) hard-nosed defense.

“Honestly, they held us hard, there was very good defense from them,” Central coach Mackenzie Smith said. “We held possession quite a bit, but slacked on some passes.”

Central’s first real chance to get on the board came at the 30-minute mark on a corner kick. After some initial pinballing, the ball eventually found the foot of Central’s Alexis Scott, who looked to have a wide-open net with JM’s goalie out of position.

JM defender Faith Wachter snuffed out that chance, however, with a stellar deflection, leaping to get her body between the ball and the net.

Central would later tally its first goal on a corner kick from the far side, when Adriana Pompeo kicked it clean through into the net.

Central’s second goal came on a nifty play. JM goalkeeper Jhett Corley initially made a save on Central’s Ramsay Mansuetto, but could not corral the ball. Trailing the play was Brooke Porter, who was able to easily tap the ball into the open net for a 2-0 advantage.

Wachter replaced Corley in JM’s net and was tested right away, turning aside a couple of Central shots in her first two minutes in goal.

“She always comes in well in relief of our starting goalie,” JM coach Greg Evans said of Wachter. “She’s good on the field as a sweeper and as a goalie…She’s very vocal.”

Central keeper Liz Romanek went largely untested throughout the contest, but made a nice save diving to her left six minutes before halftime.

The Knights came out of the break and found the back of the net right away as Pompeo scored at the 37:10 mark on a breakaway assisted by Peyton Smith.

“We were shaky in the beginning, but we brought out our teamwork really, really well,” Coach Smith said. “We started talking in the second half, which is what I love the most.”

Photo by Cody Nespor
John Marshall goalkeeper Faith Wachter makes a diving stop in the second half of Tuesday’s game against Wheeling Central.

Wachter made a couple more solid stops over the next two minutes, including a diving stop on a breakaway to her left and another punching the ball up into the air on a corner kick.

Pompeo tallied her third goal of the game when she out-raced Wachter to a slow-rolling ball at the 15-minute mark for a hat trick, assisted by Mariah Ratcliffe.

“The goals that we scored were very skilled, they weren’t slops,” added Central coach Ashley Winters. “We had (Pompeo) make it in on a corner kick, we had a cross in front and we fed through their backline several times. There were shots that should have gone in the net that we just didn’t capitalize on them the way that we should.”

Despite Central spending the majority of the match on JM’s side of the field, the Monarchs never stopped fighting. Megan Schwing had a chance on goal that required a save from Romanek and Wachter continued her solid showing in net to keep the deficit at four goals.

“They played very well out there, I’m very proud of them,” Evans said. “The score doesn’t dictate how they played on the field. Central played a good, hard game and they got a couple of really good quality shots on us. Nothing to keep your head down about.”

Wheeling Central is back in action tonight at Steubenville Catholic Central. John Marshall plays Thursday at Oak Glen.