FAIRHOPE, Alabama — The Lady Pirates battled visiting Mary G. Montgomery to a 0-0 tie Monday night at Majors field. Fairhope keeper Beth Tuttle had five big saves including a PK and a point-blank rip which she tipped over the bar. Fairhope had several nice looks for shots on goal, especially in the second half, but came up short.

“Beth did a great job for us tonight against a good team.” said first-year head coach Courtney Casto Calhoun. “She expected to see some quailty shots from outside the 18 as well, so she did a great job of staying on the line and anticipating all night and they couldn’t get the ball past her. She saved us big time. Everyboy hustled. Overall I was please, or as pleased as you can be with a tie, but we were not a full strength tonight. Our defense stepped up without our first line of forwards in there. We’re just nursing some soreness getting ready for area.

The Lady Pirates (2-2-1) take on arch-rival Daphne Friday night at Jubilee Stadium at DHS with varsity play starting at 7 p.m. Calhoun said a new formation may have helped keep the Lady Vikings off the board. M.G.M. (4-0-2) will host Baldwin County High Friday in Semmes at 5:30 p.m.

“We went into this game with a new formation. Girls followed the game plan and we had some opportunities to score. But unfortunately just were not able to put one in the back of the net. M.G.M. is a great team and always well coached so we did a good job defensively, but so did they.”

M.G.M. head coach Joe Moody was pleased with his team’s effort but not, overly.

“Ties stink,” he said. “But we were pretty evenly matched up tonight. Fairhope always comes up with good teams. That’s why we like to play here when we can. I was not happy with our intensity at times. They (The Lady Pirates) played hard and gave us one of the better games we’ve had so far. Back and forth. Our girls played hard too. Just came up short. We missed a PK but that’s PKs—you never know.”