Staff photo / Brian Yauger Mathews sophomore Cole Freudenrich (7) jostles with Pymatuning Valley junior Garret Gray for possession of the ball during Tuesday’s game in Vienna.

VIENNA — It was a tale of two halves in Tuesday’s game between Mathews and Pymatuning Valley, and the score reflected it.

The Mustangs controlled much of the first half and the Lakers controlled the second.

In the end, the league rivals finished with a 1-1 draw.

“Excellent performance,” Mathews coach Julie Ring said. “Obviously, we still have some key things to work on, but it was a very good performance today.”

A key part of that came from netminder Trenton Ring. The Mustangs were pinned in their defending third for much of the second half, but the sophomore keeper was a crucial factor in keeping Pymatuning Valley at bay.

“He’s a pretty good kid,” Julie Ring said. “He learned from our goalie last year. He’s still working on things himself, and he’ll continue to get better as the season goes on.”

Senior Grayson Bonar scored for Mathews to give them the edge in the first half. But as the game went on, the Lakers started applying more and more pressure.

Around the halfway mark of the second half, Pymatuning Valley got on the board with junior Ryan Beck knotting the score at 1.

“They came back,” Lakers coach Jessica Corson said. “They knew they needed to set (the game) at their pace, we’ve really worked on that. A lot of the passing, and just setting the pace. Know the pace you want, the pace we practice at. Once they got back into that groove, it took off and they were able to accomplish some more stuff.”

Two games into the season, the undefeated Lakers are still searching for their first win. They’ll get a chance to do that on Thursday, as Pymatuning Valley (0-0-2) travels to Jefferson to take on the Falcons.

Against Jefferson, the game plan is simple.

“They just need to step up going out (on the field) and they need to start at their own pace,” Corson said. “We have to have our pace set to go out right away, and not let them set the tone and the pace for the game.”

On Friday, the Mustangs will get a taste of the Friday Night Lights when they travel to North Jackson to take on Jackson-Milton the day after the football programs kick off their seasons.

Then on Tuesday, Mathews travels to Grand Valley to take on a league foe.

For Mathews, the goal this season is simple. Take every game as it comes. They know what they need to do to succeed, it’s just a matter of execution.

“We’re taking it one game at a time,” Julie Ring said. “We have a bar set. We want to keep things one game at a time and come back and work on anything that needs to be worked on and take the next game as it comes. (We just need to) come to practice with expectations and meet those expectations of practice every day and go from there.”