By Carl Holcomb
Moorefield Examiner
Moorefield Girls Soccer’s inaugural season came to a close in the Class AA-A Region II Tournament opening round playoff mach as the Indians claimed a 10-nil victory in Berkeley Springs.
The Indians held the advantage winning all three matches this season against Moorefield, but the Yellow Jackets never backed down.
The Yellow Jackets showed tremendous heart and hustle to the final whistle and have improved ten fold since the start of the year with a plethora of novice players learning the ropes.
Moorefield Girls Soccer developed as team and had a lot of fun during the year bonding over individual and team success along with cheering for the boys squad.
“I’m incredibly proud of the girls and their improvement! We had a lot of learning opportunities this year, and Berkeley Springs has a talented team. Playing them three times benefited our girls and increased our game IQ immensely,” Moorefield Girls Soccer coach Jessica Markwood commented.“Wagner and Parisi locked in for our midfield and shutdown a lot of their short passing through the middle and each made some great tackles that resulted in our attacks. Leroux and Marrero as mid wings made several great off the ball shifts to support the back line and put a lot of pressure on ball to force some bad passes that were intercepted by our centers. M. See had golden boots with multiple well placed volleys and backline clears. Kuh and Penkov were a presence in the backfield and stopped several potentials for indians. We had 7 shots on goal against them on Wednesday – Williams, Snyder, and Cornett all had good looks, which was huge improvement with possession in attacking third. Grace Simmons remains a force in the goal, and has single handedly kept us in matches – Wednesday she had 24 saves and over 20 shots on goal. She’s seeing action every 90 seconds of a match, and we have got to help her out and cut that down next year. They’ll be hard to handle next year too with their returning class – as most of this year’s starters are juniors, but we’ll keep working and our time will come. After game on Wednesday girls were trying to secure their jersey numbers for next year – so that’s a great sign. Also, a huge win for our program, Stutler is willing to help make home games happen at the field at MMS. It’ll be good for all of us to have some home matches next year.Most impressively, most of this first year team hadn’t ever played, so the fact they dared to challenge themselves to do something new, and showed up for each other day in and day out, rain or shine or cold – means the world and is a priceless foundation to build on our culture on, and I’m greatful they took the risk and rose to the challenges.”The Yellow Jackets had tenacious strikers as Parvatee Snyder, Elizabeth Williams and Keira Cornett kept the opposing goalies on their toes.
Moorefield’s midfielders Emily Parisi and Jocelyn Wagner prevented teams from making cuts across the pitch and had great sliding tackle technique.
Chloe Leroux and Marrero provided a wave of support as mid-wings giving the opponents fits on passes.
The Yellow Jackets defenders MaKenna See, Kenedy Kuh and Kailynn Penkov were dynamic on the back line with good skill clearing the box.
In the final match against Berkeley Springs, Moorefield goalkeeper Grace Simmons recorded 24 saves and faced over 20 shots on goal.
The Yellow Jackets finished their inaugural season with a record of 4-8-1 and created a solid foundation for the future of Moorefield Girls Soccer with a plethora of dedication, perseverance and joy playing the game.
