MCDERMOTT — Holding a sizeable lead in terms of possession and shot opportunities is certainly a big deal in the sport of soccer. After all, executing in those areas only increases one's chances for multiple conversions on the scoreboard.
But at the end of the day, the only score that matters is the final score that's displayed on the home and away side.
Not a stranger to competitive contests when they've met up themselves, the Northwest Mohawks' and Valley Indians' boys soccer programs again battled in a competitive match Wednesday evening.
For much of the game, Valley held serve in terms of shots and time of possession, claiming a 28-2 shot advantage in the 80-minute affair with 17 shots on goal.
But a gritty Northwest defensive effort, led by 16 saves from junior goalkeeper Chase Kingrey and an early second minute goal from standout forward Luke Lewis, allowed the Mohawks to defend home and post a 1-1 tie Wednesday evening at Roy Rogers Field in McDermott.
For Northwest head coach Nick Lewis, he couldn't have been more pleased with how the Mohawks stood tall in withstanding Valley's balanced offensive attack en route to holding the Indians to its lone goal.
"I'm super happy with how the boys played," Lewis said. "We're starting six freshmen, and Chase is a first-year player, so they're coming together quick. Having an assistant like Josh Keeney, a guy who has over 20 years of experience has been huge and has helped out a ton. That's been good for the boys."
On the other side, Valley head coach Jacob Perry's frustration was evident, particularly considering the ceiling that he knows the Indians can reach when playing its best soccer.
In addition to its 28-2 shot advantage on Wednesday evening, Valley also had a 30-6 advantage on shots against Waverly in its 5-1 victory over the Tigers last Thursday. But Valley scored five goals in that road affair compared to its one connection in Wednesday's road tie.
"It was frustrating," Perry said. "When we went up to Waverly last week, we had a massive shot advantage as well. The shots are there. We're obviously getting opportunities. There's something missing where we can't do that last little bit. I don't know if it's the style of play, or if it's strictly fundamental finishing, but we've got some work to do."
Luke Lewis, a high-level talent who already had seven goals on the year just in Northwest's opening two matches against South Webster (3-2 loss) and West (6-0 win), struck early.
Despite battling an ankle injury that kept Lewis out of approximately 80 percent of Wednesday's match as a precautionary measure with the soccer tilt not factoring into the conference standings, No. 1 still made a massive impact, scoring just 71 seconds into the match from the right side of the box to give the Mohawks an early 1-0 lead in the second minute of play.
The goal was Lewis' eighth of the year in just three games, as well as Connor Ealey's fifth assist over the same stretch of time.
"Luke had an ankle injury, so we debated on whether or not he would even play (on Wednesday)," Lewis said. "He started, put one in within two minutes thanks to a great pass from Connor Ealey, and we decided to pull him back out after that. The defense did awesome holding through the pressure over the entirety of the match. It was basically offense vs. defense over the course of the match. Once we got Luke back in there and relieved some of the pressure off of the defense, it helped out a lot."
"That goal was a punch in the gut," Perry said. "I told our guys, 'They're going to come out and play hard.' That's something that's always true about Northwest teams and Nick Lewis' teams. They're going to play hard, so it's either you show up and play with high energy and play hard, or you're going to get smacked in the mouth. Here we came, two minutes in, lackadaisical — felt it in practice on Tuesday and in warmups (on Wednesday), then boom, it hit us. It wasn't the exact fight that we had when we went to Wheelersburg. It was just a different evening."
Following that early conversion, Valley handled the ball well throughout the remainder of the match over the middle two-thirds of the pitch, as the shot margin indicated.
But Northwest's backline, led by senior stronghold Parker Wamsley, held strong.
"Parker leads those guys back there," Lewis said. "He does an awesome job. The other three guys are freshmen, and they have made a complete turnaround from where they started to where they're at now. They've all been awesome. We went 3-2 with South Webster — I'm happy about that, and played well against West (on Tuesday). This performance here is one that I'm really happy with. A 1-1 tie against Valley, who is one of the top teams in our division, is big."
When they happened to falter, Kingrey was there to clean up the mess. A multi-sport athlete who is taking up soccer at the high school level for the first time, in addition to manning the defense at goalkeeper, Kingrey looked like a natural.
Among Kingrey's 16 saves were three stops just in the first seven minutes of play alone, which successfully kept the Valley offense off-balance as Northwest took a 1-0 lead heading into the halftime break.
"They were 16 quality saves, too," Lewis said. "Chase did an awesome job for us. Chase is a first-year player for us who is a junior that came out and took over the goalie position. He has done an awesome job."
Despite the halftime deficit on the scoreboard, Valley was able to get an equalizing goal from junior Elliot Franke. No. 10 scored his first goal of the 2026 season in the 49th minute of play, and now has four points on the year after collecting two early assists in the Indians' first three matches.
"We have a lot of guys that are athletes," Perry said. "They're ballers. They can go out and get a goal. It just depends on who's going to be that guy, that evening. Elliot has had some tough luck this year where it's been like a lid on the goal for him. He's had multiple shots hit the crossbar, just barely miss or just barely get saved. So for him to receive it, finish a cross goal and keep it low like we ask him to — it was awesome. We just couldn't find the back of the net the rest of the evening."
Considering the Mohawks are starting six freshmen plus the first-year junior Kingrey among its 11 available starting positions, Lewis is thrilled with Northwest's 1-1-1 start, one in which the Mohawks were a goal away from not having a loss on its line.
"It's always tough to play in the SOC II," Lewis said when asked about the league's outlook. "Minford, South Webster and Wheelersburg have always had powerhouse programs. This year, it's more competitive. We just want to hang with them. So far, it's been impressive with the boys."
For Perry, Valley still sits without a loss — but it's little consolation considering that he believes the Indians could just as easily be 3-0, instead of the 1-0-2 mark it presently holds.
"It's an annoying way to start the year," Perry said. "Those are three games where I believe they're extremely winnable. To walk away with only winning one of them and tying the two, it leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Hopefully, our guys understand that feeling, and know that there's still 14 matches left to play (in the regular season). The hope is that they're very displeased with that feeling and they aren't throwing it in yet, so they don't have that feeling again."
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