Norwalk rallies for road tie

ONTARIO — The Norwalk boys soccer team came away with a 4-4 tie at Ontario after a wild second half in non-league play on Sept. 5 at Ontario High School. The Truckers (3-2-1) led 1-0 at the half, but the Warriors (0-2-3) scored four of the second goals in the second half to lead 4-1, only for the visitors to rally back to force the tie. Noah Jameson scored the first-half goal for the Truckers, only for Ontario to score four straight times to take a 4-1 lead with under 13 minutes left. But from there, Kingston Gonzales scored with 12:30 left, then Conor Nickle drilled a penalty kick to make it 4-3. Johan Ramos then dribbled the ball out of the Ontario defense and put the ball across the halfway line toward the home goal. Jameson then ran onto the ball and got a shot past two defenders and the goalkeeper with 1:30 left to tie the match. "We all breathed a sigh of relief when the final whistle blew," NHS head coach Chris Schnell said. "Going in, we thought this was a winnable game for us. I'm proud of our boys for fighting back and battling for the whole 80 minutes. "We could have easily put our heads down and given up after Ontario went up three," he added. "But I think it shows a lot about this team and about our captains that we were able to come back on the road with such little time left. You want to win every game, of course… but after how the start of that second half went, we will take a tie on the road." Miguel Jacobo also made 14 saves for the Truckers, who host Huron on Wednesday in the Northern Ohio Conference opener. VOLLEYBALL St. Paul 3, Old Fort 2 NORWALK — The Lady Flyers stayed unbeaten on the season with a marathon non-league win over the Stockaders on Saturday. St. Paul (5-0, 3-0) posted scores of 23-25, 25-18, 20-25, 25-15, and 15-13 for the home win. Ella Kalizewski finished with 21 kills, five blocks, seven points (two aces), and five digs in the win. Ryleigh Mansfield-Bush also had a big day with 13 kills, 19 digs, and also seven points with two aces. Annie Friend set 34 assists and served 12 points with five aces and also had 10 digs. Kate Stieber led the defense with 19 digs, while Elsie Shumaker had 14 digs. Also for St. Paul, which visits Plymouth on Thursday in Firelands Conference play, Raleigh Friend had seven kills (three blocks) and 10 points, and Aria Kalizewski added eight points with three aces and three blocks. Hillsdale 3, S. Central 1 GREENWICH — The Trojans (2-4) took a set from unbeaten Hillsdale (10-0) in Saturday's non-league loss. The Falcons won 25-21, 24-26, 25-16, and 25-9. For South Central, Kenlea Blair finished with nine kills and was 12 for 14 serving with six aces. Keragin Gray had 21 assists, while Karli Smith added 20 digs and four kills. Zaida Myers also had seven kills and 19 digs for the Trojans, who visit Lucas on Tuesday. Willard 3, Shelby 2 SHELBY — The Crimson Flashes came out on the right side of a five-set win less than two days after losing in five to Buckeye Central with Saturday's win over the Whippets. Willard posted scores of 25-27, 25-18, 14-25, 25-21, and 15-9 to improve to 4-2 overall. "Going five sets is never ideal, but especially this week when we had four matches since Monday and 17 sets total," Willard head coach Ashley Bond said. "We played really well at times, and then we would shoot ourselves in the foot to give them points." In the win, Leah Weiss had 19 kills, 14 digs, and served 12 for 12. Alexis Rettig finished 18 for 20 serving with three aces and 17 digs, while Emelia Tallman had 24 assists and seven digs. Also for Willard, Mya Stephens was 20 for 21 serving and had seven kills, 13 digs, and 10 assists. Edyn Carr finished 18 for 18 serving and had 14 digs, while Athelia Atkins added nine kills. "Overall, I'd say this was a total team victory because we had so many different people step up and help us at the right time," Bond said. Willard returns to Northern 10 Conference play on Tuesday at Bucyrus. CROSS COUNTRY NHS girls seventh at Ashland Invite ASHLAND — The Truckers placed seventh in the girls race and 15th in the girls race on Saturday at the loaded Arrows Invitational at Freer Field. Norwalk scored 232 points with Olive Leavitt finishing among the top five runners. She ran a time of 20:13.9 to place fifth overall among the 226 runners. She was joined in the top 10 by Saige Konik, who clocked in at 20:30.8 to finish in eighth place. Jaylee Dials finished in 23:16 to place 59th for Norwalk, while Olivia Ysaguirre (24:25.6) was 78th, and Aubrielle Cruey (24:37.7) finished in 82nd. Isaiah Kelsey paced the NHS boys in 18:35 to place 63rd in a race with 291 runners. Clay Heyman (18:47) was 72nd and Nolan Jones (18:54) was 77th for the Truckers. Rounding out the scoring included Caleb Cross (20:09) in 99th and Josiah Metcalf (20:12) in 101st. Norwalk will be among the hundreds of teams again competing at the Tiffin Carnival on Sept. 12 at Hedges-Boyer Park.