It was Senior Night Thursday at Washington High School.
The guest team was Miami Trace and a very large crowd turned out to watch the two local schools go head-to-head in boys and girls soccer, and four matches of volleyball (7th, 8th, j-v and varsity).
The weather was warm and dry for the second of two annual meetings between the two schools.
In varsity boys soccer, Miami Trace won, 3-0.
Blake Pittser scored two goals for Miami Trace in the first half, setting a new school record of 55 career goals.
Ethan Conn scored for the Panthers in the second half. Conn has now scored one goal in each of the last five games for Miami Trace.
All three assists went to Brett Lewis.
Goals in the first half came at the 27:28 mark and with 26:17 to play.
In the second half, the goal came with 31:16 to play in the game.
“It was a typical Court House-Trace game,” Miami Trace assistant coach Sean Sweeney said. “Everyone played hard. There was some good back and forth. We won the battle winning balls out of the air. We were first to most of the loose balls. That makes it easier to attack.
“Everyone was finally back and healthy,” Sweeney said. “It made it a lot easier for our guys in the midfield. We got the best of it tonight.”
“Trace was ready for this game tonight, as were we,” Washington head coach Aaron Teter said. “I was impressed with Trace’s intensity and the way they attacked the game from the start.
“We hung in there with them, too,” Teter said. “We didn’t mark Pittser very well on his two goals in the first half. Other than that, I thought we played a good first half, but, we were down 2-0 at halftime.
“Timmy Kinzler did great in the net for them,” Teter said. “Our defensive back was strong tonight. It was all seniors, Brian Wilson in goal, Kenny Upthegrove at right back, Alex Trombold as sweeper. Those guys were awesome tonight.”
Seniors for the Blue Lions are: Seth Hanusik, a two-year captain (unable to play due to an injury); Logan Jackson (unable to play this year due to an injury). Those two were in the starting line-up Thursday, but for less than one minute.
Alex Trombold, a two-year captain; Mason Morgan, Brian Wilson, starting goalkeeper for the last two seasons, and Kenny Upthegrove are the other Blue Lion seniors.
All six seniors have been with the program for four years.
Miami Trace goalkeeper Tim Kinzler had three saves off of a total of four shots by Washington.
Miami Trace had 18 shots on goal. Brian Wilson was in goal for the Blue Lions.
Miami Trace is now 6-4-1 in the SCOL with an SCOL game remaining at home against Hillsboro Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Wilmington was supposed to play Chillicothe Thursday. However, that match was postponed until next week due to Wilmington having its Homecoming parade Thursday, according to the Wilmington News Journal. Wilmington goes into the game undefeated in the league and Chillicothe has one loss, that coming to Wilmington.
Miami Trace will finish in third place, no matter the outcome of Tuesday’s match.
Washington finishes SCOL play for 2016 at 6-6, good for fourth in the league.
McClain is fifth in the SCOL, followed by Clinton-Massie and Hillsboro.
Blue Lion soccer continues play next week.
On Monday, the varsity hosts Southeastern and on Wednesday, Washington hosts Westfall.
The Blue Lion j-v team hosts Chillicothe Tuesday at 5 p.m.
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The Washington Blue Lion j-v boys soccer team hosted Hillsboro Wednesday, Oct. 5 and came away with a 2-2 tie.
Blaise Tayese and Nate Horton scored for Washington.
