Sherando knocks off James Wood in boys' soccer

By JIM LAISE | Special to The Winchester Star

Apr 6, 2018

STEPHENS CITY — After falling behind by one goal, the Sherando High School boys’ soccer team answered with four straight scores by as many players Thursday night to defeat arch-rival James Wood 4-1 in a Class 4 Northwestern District match at Arrowhead Stadium.

“I think that first goal by them proved to be a wake-up call to us,” Sherando’s Max Polio said. “After that I think we woke up and started playing our game.”

The Colonels’ Jairo Reyes scored the game’s first goal in the 31st minute to stake a claim to a 1-0 lead over the defending Northwestern regular-season champs, but after that the Warriors’ scoring doors swung wide open.

“Well, obviously, we scored that first goal and I told my team that the first five minutes after the first goal would be the most important we played,” said James Wood coach Brian Sullivan.

Sophomore Christian Arellano scored in the 26th minute and teammate Max Polio, the senior leader of this team, added the go-ahead goal in the 33rd minute to give Sherando a 2-1 lead, the score at halftime.

Sophomore Edwin Perez Alberto knocked in the Warriors’ third goal in the 63rd minute. Finally freshman Wade Butler finished the scoring in the 76th minute.

“Now our job is to stay disciplined and keep playing,” said Sullivan. “Sherando’s got a great program and Coach (Pat) Anderson does a great job. Everybody knows his role on that team. That’s what we’ve got to work toward.”

James Wood has a young team that employs speedsters like senior Xavier Kallash-Kyler and Damon Schneider. The issue is who is to get the ball to the Colonel playmakers.

On the other side, Anderson, for now, has no such concerns.

He moved Polio to the center-back position, “kind of like a point guard in basketball,” Anderson said. “It takes a great athlete to do that. He has to run the offense but also get back on defense. He’s running all the time.”

Polio failed to come out of the game when both coaches substituted liberally.

Even though it is the first week of April the Warriors, who finished 15-3-1 last season, have played only three matches thus far. They are 2-1 overall, 1-1 in the district with a makeup match tonight against Brentsville.

The Colonels have played six times. They are 1-3-2 overall, 0-3 in the league.

Polio took the most shots on goal (five) for Sherando, which had 16 shots to James Wood’s 11.

Each goalkeeper — Warrior Spencer Scott and Colonel freshman Hayden Armstrong — stopped 10 shots.

“We haven’t played a lot this season and the field was a little choppy, but overall I thought both teams played cleanly throughout,” said Anderson.