CORRECTION: Logan Jolliff scored for Ada High School.
By Cort Reynolds
The Ada High School boys soccer team battled visiting Cory-Rawson to a dramatic 1-1 draw on Wednesday, September 27, at War Memorial Stadium in a North Central Ohio Soccer Association match played during a light rain.
The Bulldog records are 2-5-5 overall and 0-0-4 in NCOSA play following their fourth consecutive league tie.
Cory-Rawson ran its record to 7-3-2 overall and 1-1-2 in NCOSA play.
The game was a scoreless defensive battle until the 69th minute when Hornet sophomore Carson Reese made a good run up the right sideline.
As he cut in toward the goal, instead of taking the shot from fairly close range Reese patiently waited, drew the defense in and dished the ball back toward the middle to open senior teammate Keegan Puthoff.
Puthoff then drilled a 10-yard shot into the right side of the net to give Cory a 1-0 lead with 11:31 remaining to play.
A long Bulldog shot with 9:55 left was saved by the Hornet keeper. C-R put shots on goal at the 8:17 and 6:18 marks, but both were saved by Ada keeper Jacob Rush.
Another long Ada shot sailed well over and wide of the goal with 5:14 to go. A left corner kick by Cory sailed through the box untouched at the 3:30 juncture.
The Hornet keeper then made a fine diving save to his right to narrowly keep the visitors ahead with 2:40 left to play.
But Ada kept up the pressure. And a few seconds later, Bulldog junior Logan Jolliff bent a left-footed shot from about 21 yards out on the left side that hooked over the C-R goalie into the back of the net to tie it 1-1 with just 2:11 left.
Ada made a nice run up the left side with 22 seconds left in an attempt to untie the score, but the shot was blocked by a Hornet leg over the goal line. A hurried left corner kick with 11 ticks to go was unsuccessful, and the match ended in a draw.
Both teams had chances to find the net in the first half but were unable to score.
Freshman Andrew Allen put a shot wide at the 27:11 mark of the first half. Senior Carson Gossard then booted a hard shot from out front that went right to the keeper a minute later.
A Williams shot went over the goal at the 24:17 juncture. Rush saved Cory shots on goal at the 18:38 and 18:06 marks.
A long Bulldog direct kick was headed wide right on a nice try at the 16:15 mark.
A Hornet shot went over the goal with 13:47 to go in the first half. Another C-R shot curled just wide left out of the reach of the diving Rush at the 10:37 mark.
A Williams shot also went just wide with nine minutes left in the half. Ada got one more shot off in the half, but it soared over the goal with 3:45 to go to keep it scoreless at intermission.
The Bulldogs visit winless Van Wert (0-11) Saturday at noon.
