ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Harrison Central has only beaten St. Clairsville once in boys’ high school soccer action in program history, that win coming back in 2018 The Huskies came close to a second victory Tuesday night only to settle for a 1-1 draw on the artificial pitch inside Red Devil Stadium.

“I’m disappointed with the tie because I feel we played well enough throughout the entire 80 minutes to have won that match,” Harrison Central head coach Derek Gramling said. “But, at the end of the day, going on the road and getting a tie against one of our OVAC rivals and a point is very good for us.

“For Harrison Central to tie St. Clairsville is something that rarely happens,” Gramling said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve beat them. We came close tonight, though.”

The Huskies broke the scoreless contest midway through the 27th minute when Kayden Dunkle slid a free kick along the turf through the St. Clairsville wall that somehow found its way past Red Devils’ goalkeeper Talan Rice. It was the Huskies third shot of the match.

“We had a couple of opportunities to make it 2-0 and give ourselves more of a buffer, but being the away team, the home team always has the momentum in the second half,” Gramling added. “I thought we did a really good job of containing them. I felt we were kind of unlucky on their goal, but we absorbed a lot of pressure from them in the second half.”

Harrison Central goalkeeper Parker McAfee was tested four times by the hosts in the first half, turning away all attempts for a 1-0 lead at the half. He finished with 13 saves.

“He’s a rock back here,” Gramling said of McAfee. “He’s a junior, but this is his first year playing soccer. For a first-year goalkeeper to rise above a player and take the ball right off their head takes a lot of pressure off the defense.

“I saw a lot of positives and a few negatives tonight, but I like the way we are playing.”

Harrison Central (3-0-1) started slowly but dominated, for the most part, the first 40 minutes. St. Clairsville’s passing wasn’t crisp and they weren’t getting to the 50/50 balls.

“We hadn’t played since last Monday and there definitely was some rust in the first half,” St. Clairsville (2-2-1) head coach Jeff Roberts said. “We changed up quite a bit in the second half. I thought we possessed the ball more on the offensive end and that gave us more chances than we had in the first half. I would say we definitely had some rust on us in the first half.”

After being denied twice by McAfee in the 53rd and 62nd minutes, St. Clairsville’s James Parsons finally put a shot into the back of the net in the 65th minute. His left-footed blast from 12 yards out sailed just under the crossbar into the top left corner of the cage and pin-balled around inside the net.

“I was happy with the defensive side of things,” Roberts noted. “We’re still young and we’re still learning. We’re still learning life without (injured) Parker (Galloway) this season, so we’re trying to adjust and see where we are. I did think, as the game went on, we got better.”

“Harrison is a different team this year. They wanted the match today and they earned the win,” Roberts said.

Talan Rice had eight saves.