JAMES WOOD SPOILS JUDGES’ BID FOR SOCCER TITLE

May 15, 2012
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Whenever Handley and James Wood get together for an athletic contest, it’s always an intense, emotional game.

But Monday’s boys’ soccer showdown had a strange outcome — the big winner was Sherando.

After the Judges upset the Warriors last Thursday, all Handley needed was a victory over its archrival to tie Sherando for the regular season title and force a one-game playoff for the regular season Northwestern District championship.

That will not happen, though, since the Colonels defeated the Judges in a dramatic come-from-behind 3-2 overtime win at the Handley Bowl.

“That is exactly what we come over here to do,” Wood forward Chandler DeHaven said. “We lost to them earlier in the season, and that took away our title hopes. We came over here to return the favor.”

The game, however, took a while to heat up, as neither team seemed to be able to seriously threaten the others’ goal in the first 30 minutes of play. A determined, and at times brutal, battle for control of midfield kept both teams away from the other’s goal until Judges forward Ismael Trejo scored on a free kick from just outside the penalty area with 11:30 left in the first half.

Trejo’s goal, and the fact that Handley (6-10, 5-3 Northwestern District) had outshot the Colonels 10-5 in the first half, gave the Judges a good reason to believe that the second half and the game belonged to them.

Wood (8-8, 5-3), however, came out for the second half and attacked Handley’s goal with a ferocity that put the Judges on their heels.

The Colonels seemed to get the equalizer when a free kick blew past Handley goalkeeper Tirone Young into the net, but it was called back because Wood was offside when the kick was made.

Undeterred, DeHaven headed in a corner kick by Spencer Marfing just 30 seconds later to tie the game 1-1. DeHaven’s effort was truly amazing, since the Colonel senior also headed another player at the same time he headed in the tying goal, leaving him face down on the field while his team celebrated.

“I headed another player as well as the ball,” DeHaven said. “I really have no idea who it was. I guess that’s what you call taking one for the team.”

Fortunately for Wood, the injury proved to be minor and DeHaven was back on the field a few minutes later.

After two near misses by the Colonels over the next 12 minutes, a trip in the penalty area gave Wood a penalty kick with 7:20 left in the game.

Marfing converted the kick to give the Colonels a 2-1 lead, leaving the Judges in serous trouble of seeing their title hopes slip away.

“It was a really intense game,” Marfing said. “It was raining the whole time, and it was on Handley’s turf. We're not used to playing on turf, and Handley always has a really great squad. We knew all of this going in though, and we still came out on top. That’s a great feeling.”

Marfing’s penalty kick and DeHaven’s header turned out to be only the prelude to the most dramatic moment in regulation play.

With less than five seconds left on the clock, Trejo lofted a ball from 10 yards out that sailed over the head of Wood goalkeeper Joe Kysela to tie the score 2-2.

“Trejo was a threat the whole game,” Colonel coach Chris Hild said. “He’s their best scorer. He plays all over the field and he can make shots from almost anywhere. His goal at the end of regulation was a real downer, but our guys showed the kind of heart necessary to overcome that.”

The Judges, however, couldn’t settle for a tie as the two teams lined up for two five-minute overtimes. If the game stayed tied after 10 minutes, Sherando would still win the title.

That, however, didn’t matter when an own-goal by the Judges with 1:40 left in the first overtime gave Wood the victory.

“We came in with some big stakes, and they really had nothing to play for,” Handley coach Cosmo Balio said. “It was a situation where our young team really didn’t know how to close out a game. But you have to give a lot of credit to James Wood. They knew what they had to do and they did it. My hat’s off to [Sherando coach] Pat (Anderson). They won a title today.”

That sets the stage for a heated Northwestern District tournament where Handley, Wood, and Sherando are sure to bump heads again.

Sherando will face the winner of Thursday’s play-in game between Millbrook and Skyline in the semifinal on Saturday, while Wood and Handley will face off again in the other semifinal game.

If Monday’s matchup was any indication, Saturday’s rematch should be exciting.

“Playing on turf you have to keep the ball on the ground, and I didn’t think that we did a very good job of that in the first half,” Hild said. “We did a much better job of that in the second half, and that really helped us.”