Wood boys' soccer blanks Handley

By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI | The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — When the final whistle blew, the yells, smiles and hugs said it all — James Wood wanted and needed this one.

The Colonels snapped a four-game losing streak and beat Handley for the first time since the senior class has been at James Wood with a 1-0 verdict Thursday on their home Kelican Stadium grass.

The Colonels improved to 4-5 overall and 1-2 in the Northwestern District with the win, while Handley fell to 2-3-3, 1-2. Thursday’s game did not count toward the Conference 21 West standings.

“We haven’t really played the way we can play the last few games,” said James Wood freshman goalkeeper Ethan Russell, who made nine saves, including a couple of diving ones. “They’re a good team, but we knew we had the ability to beat them.

“The defense played great, we controlled the midfield a lot, and then Jairo [Reyes] just finished that one big goal. That was a good finish.”

Also a freshman, Reyes deposited Aidan Houser’s centering pass into the net from about 10 yards out 17 minutes into the second half.

Senior midfielder Nate Marcheleweski started the winning combination with a throw-in by the right sideline to Houser. The senior forward had a defender on his back, but he used his size advantage and quickness to turn on him. Houser’s pass along the ground was placed perfectly to Reyes, who ran into the open space and redirected the ball into the net.

Handley made a strong push for the equalizer and fired five shots (three on goal) in the final 20 minutes, but the Judges (14-6 shot edge) lost for the second time in three days despite outshooting their opponent. The Judges’ best chance came in the 75th minute, but Russell denied Chris Nerangis with what he said was a foot save.

James Wood coach Brian Sullivan couldn’t have been happier with the performance, particularly on the defensive side.

The Colonels were without one of their top defenders in Liam Ebert because of a red card he picked up against Sherando last week, but they limited Handley to one shot in the first 20 minutes of the second half after giving up eight in the first half, then weathered the Judges’ storm in the final 20 minutes.

“We’ve given up a few too many goals lately,” said Sullivan, whose team surrendered 15 in its four-game losing streak. “We’ve been working a lot on defense in practice, so this was big for us.

“We’ve been focusing on keeping possession and dictating the pace of play. I think we got a little bit away from that the last 20 minutes, but we played together as a unit in the first 20 minutes and cleaned up some of our mistakes.”

Defenders Matthew Digman, Jacob Sortino, Saul De La Cana Barbosa and Paul Ebersole did well in contributing to the shutout, but there’s no question that the main reason for it was Russell.

In the first half, Russell — who was away from the team last week while competing in Spain with the 2002 Region I Olympic Development team (East Coast players from Virginia all the way up to Maine) — came off his line to force Mohamed Naama to shoot wide, then later made a sliding save to deny Saber Ali when he was just 10 yards from goal.

In the second half, it looked like Nerangis might tie it up with his low shot inside the box, but Russell’s reflexes made the difference.

“I think I should have got out there a little quicker [to challenge], but it was a good ball by Saber,” Russell said. “He went far post and I dove near post, and the shot just [went] off my foot.”

Handley coach Scott Bucey felt the Judges definitely had more possession and opportunities, but he credited Russell with coming up big.

“We had some one-on-one opportunities, and he was able to stop us,” Bucey said. “That was probably the difference in the game.

“We’ve got to figure out the finishing. Right now our build-up product’s looking pretty good. But the final piece, the most important one, we’ve got to put together.”

Russell said his team finished second in the consolation bracket of his tournament in Spain, playing youth teams from clubs like Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.

“That was just a great experience playing all those great teams, with a ton of great players,” Russell said. “That really helped me a lot.”

Sullivan’s just glad that Russell’s back to help James Wood.

“I keep telling our guys we can’t expect him to bail us out every single game,” Sullivan said. “But he had a couple of unbelievable saves today, and that really helps our team’s confidence when they can fall back on a kid who they know is going to be so sturdy in the back.

“His communication is unbelievable, and so is his composure. He’s like a senior for us. Our defenders really appreciate him.”

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