Parsons, Tuttle Power St. C. In Doubling Up Of Brooke
Dynamic Duo Has Tallied 15 Of Red Devils’ 19 Goals So Far
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - It's nice to have a 1-2 scoring punch in high school soccer. The St. Clairsville boys certainly do.
James Parsons and Trevor Tuttle continued their red-hot play Tuesday night as the Red Devils (3-1) bounced back from their first setback with a 4-2 doubling up of visiting Brooke (1-2) on the artificial pitch at Red Devil Stadium.
The dynamic duo each found the net twice and have combined for 15 of their team's 19 goals thus far, with Tuttle recording nine.
"They have been putting a lot of effort into it. They've been running a lot," St. Clairsville head coach Jeff Roberts said of Parsons and Tuttle. "There are times, however, I'd like to see them pass more because they are so creative."
Roberts has been pleasantly surprised by the twosome.
"It's been fun so far. I really didn't expect us to score this many goals this early after losing all the goals with Parker (Galloway) graduating," Roberts continued. "They've been doing their best to find a way to score."
And they do it in different ways.
Tuttle uses his head and Parsons relies on his powerful legs.
"Trevor nearly got a third goal on another backward header," Roberts pointed out. "If Trevor is anywhere near the ball, he's going to get a head on it."
As well as St. Clairsville played in the first half and as bad as Brooke played, the Red Devils were still only up 2-1 at the intermission.
"I don't think the scoreboard really reflects how the match was," Roberts offered. "I think we might have hit 2 or 3 crossbars, but the kids kept fighting and battling. The opportunities were there, we just didn't capitalize on all of them."
St. Clairsville peppered Brooke goalkeeper Bronson Pack with 17 shots, but the junior made some solid saves to keep his team close.
Tuttle made it 1-0 in the 13th minute when he headed in a corner kick from Noah Locke amongst a scrum in front of the Brooke net. Caden Blacker assisted.
Parsons made it 2-0 eight minutes later when his shot from 15 yards from point-blank range zipped between Pack and the post to his left. Camden Judge logged the assist.
Brooke cut the deficit in half when Giacomo Dell'omo scored off an assist from Jacob High in the 30th minute. It was only the second shot by the Bruins.
"We just played lackadaisical in the first half," veteran Brooke head coach Joe Pepe said. "You can't take anything away from St. Clairsville. They've got a good team, but you know what? Last year they beat us 10-0. This year we've improved a lot. Most of these kids are coming back from last year and we figure we are going to take out lumps, but we're also going to give a few too as things go on.
"These kids never quit. I think if we had a little more time, we might have been able to pop another one in," Pepe added. "That's why you play these games. Take nothing away from my guys. They played extremely hard and I couldn’t be any prouder of all of them."
Parsons upped the count to 3-1 in the 52nd minute from low in the box in front of Pack. Tuttle earned the helper.
Eleven minutes later, Tuttle headed a Lucas Causey free yard past Pack to tickle the twine.
High slipped the ball past St. Clairsville goalkeeper Jani Viczian in the 69th minute for the final score.
St. Clairsville visits John Marshall on Thursday. Brooke travels to Steubenville Catholic the same night.