James Wood boys' soccer tops Culpeper; earns first region berth in 10 years

WINCHESTER — The James Wood boys’ soccer team didn’t waste much time adding to their historic season.

The Colonels scored twice in the first 13 minutes, added a third goal in the 27th minute and went on to beat Culpeper County 3-1 in the Class 4 Northwestern District semifinals on Thursday night at Kelican Stadium. The Blue Devils scored their goal with 10 minutes left.

With the win, James Wood (12-0) set a school record for wins and clinched a regional tournament berth for just the second time in school history and for the first time since 2011.

The Colonels will host Millbrook at 7:30 on Tuesday in the district championship game. After winning its first district regular-season championship since 2011, James Wood will look to capture its first district tournament since that same year.

“It’s always going to be a team effort,” said James Wood senior midfielder Erick Nolasco of Thursday’s performance. “It starts with the defense and the midfield. We capitalized kind of early, and after that we kind of just held the lead from there.”

James Wood senior forward Seth Hammond played a starring role in the Colonels getting off to a hot start against Culpeper (1-9-2), which upset Liberty to advance to Tuesday’s semis.

After taking a pass from Tristan Obert, Hammond scored inside the 18 from the left side on a hard shot that deflected off Culpeper goalkeeper Sam McCabe’s hands and into the net. Three minutes later, Hammond played a cross from the left side along the ground that Efrain Cruz easily deposited into the net from six yards away.

“I think it’s important to get some early goals in the first half, because we can rely on to our defense to defend leads,” said Hammond of a team that has 10 shutouts. “It got a little nervy at the end once they got that goal, but we held strong and played well together. So it was a good win.”

The game wasn’t quite as close as the score indicated.

McCabe (nine saves) made several nice stops over the last 67 minutes, particularly with his legs, and only allowed Hayden Armstrong’s close-range goal off a Edgar Del Moral assist in the 27th minute. James Wood had an 18-3 shot advantage, with only Michael Hillin’s goal inside the 18 coming from within 40 yards. (Culpeper did have a corner kick glance off the crossbar in the 74th minute.) Colonels goalkeeper Brandon Dunn needed to only make one save.

However, James Wood coach Brian Sullivan said his team can’t afford to play like it did in the second half if it hopes to continue its winning ways. Sullivan urged the team to play with more energy multiple times during the final 40 minutes against the Blue Devils.

“I thought we came out in the first 10 or 15 minutes, played pretty well, kept possession, first half was really good with moving the ball, playing feet, one, two touches, getting the ball off our foot early,” Sullivan said. “That’s when we have the most success. That led to a 3-0 lead, and then we got a little too comfortable.”

Sullivan said Culpeper County did a good job of challenging the Colonels in the second half, and he would have liked to have seen his team respond better to the performance of the Blue Devils.

“I want us to recognize in games, when we do get tested, can we raise our level and realize that we’re not playing all that well,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to talk about not getting comfortable in games and making sure we’re going out there and playing a full 80 minutes and not just playing bits and pieces of each half.”

James Wood might not have played a perfect game, but the Colonels appreciated the achievement of qualifying for the Region 4C tournament and setting a school record for wins.

But they’re not satisfied with just making the region tournament. That’s why Sullivan wants James Wood to play in a manner that will leave the team with no regrets about its performance when the final whistle blows.

“We’re all really happy [about qualifying for regionals],” Nolasco said. “I feel like we have a really strong team this year. We just have to take it one game at a time and see where it goes from there.”

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