Hammond, quick start lead Wood boys' soccer to win

WINCHESTER — Following the Class 4 Northwestern District championship game last week, James Wood boys’ soccer coach Brian Sullivan said while it was great to come out as strong as it did that night in the second half, he added, “ideally, we’d like to come out in the first half and play that way.”

The Colonels’ first half on Monday night was as close to ideal as you can get.

James Wood scored three goals in the first eight minutes and went on to a 6-2 win over Loudoun County in the Region 4C semifinals at Kelican Stadium.

It’s the first-ever regional win for the Colonels, who have conquered everything except lightning this year. James Wood (14-0) broke a scoreless tie in the district final against Millbrook by scoring twice in 14 minutes before the rest of the game was canceled by lightning. On Monday, the second half with the Captains (9-4-1) was never even played because of lightning. The game went into a delay at halftime. With rain pouring down 75 minutes later and with only one half needed to take place for a game to be official, the rest of the game was terminated.

James Wood’s win sets up a showdown on Wednesday with Park View (10-1-2), which is tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. at James Wood. The Patriots beat Millbrook 5-1 in Wednesday’s other semifinal.

Senior forward Seth Hammond scored four of Monday’s goals to tie a school single-game record. Sullivan said Hammond was bummed he didn’t get a chance to break it, but he did shatter James Wood’s single-season scoring record with his 20th through 23rd goals to break the record of 20. Monday marked Hammond’s first four-goal game after previously recording three hat tricks.

Sullivan said a different approach from the Millbrook game helped the Colonels at the outset.

“Against Millbrook, I thought we did a good job [at the start], but I think we were so hyped up pregame,” Sullivan said. “We warmed up for 45 minutes really, really hard.

“Today, I kind of shortened the warm-up a bit. That way we were hitting our peak at the start of the game rather than the warm-up.”

James Wood senior midfielder and captain Erick Nolasco said he could tell the Colonels were ready to go after the warm-up.

“Everyone was focused,” Nolasco said.

Sullivan said two of Loudoun County’s best players didn’t start the game for reasons he didn’t know, and that also helped James Wood early. Sullivan said those players were inserted into the game within the first seven minutes, by which point the Colonels had already done major damage.

Hammond was denied on a close-range shot by Loudoun County goalkeeper Jonathan Portillo 15 seconds into the game. But before the first minute was up, he got another chance in the penalty box after taking a pass from Tristan Obert. This attempt he buried.

“You just get on with that and keep on going,” said Hammond after being denied on his first shot. “You can’t look upon your mistakes.”

Less than three minutes later, Hammond scored off the first of three assists from senior forward Chris Garcia.

“[The Captains’] center back was shifting to follow Chris,” Sullivan said. “That’s the luxury of having two top-notch players like that. The center back was following Chris to the corner, which was just opening up a big alley and we just played through balls for Seth early.”

After Connor Ballentine headed in a throw-in from Ryan King to make it 3-0 in the eighth minute, the Captains got on the board following a throw-in of their own. Noah Creighton moved in on a loose ball and blasted a shot in from close range to make it 3-1.

The two teams settled in a bit after that, but then the Colonels responded with a three-goal flurry in the final 14 minutes.

Junior midfielder Deshawn Paige took a square pass from Garcia at the top of 18 and buried a shot to make it 4-1, then Hammond buried a penalty kick after he was fouled close to the goal in the 31st minute to make it 5-1. The Captains answered with a Wilson Kern PK goal four minutes later, but Hammond rocketed a shot just inside the far right post from inside 15 yards off a pass from Garcia to complete the scoring two minutes later.

“I was overall, really, really pleased with how we played and kept possession of the ball, and kept [Loudoun County’s] tempo and pace under control, and stayed organized,” Sullivan said. “Six goals in a regional semifinal is pretty impressive, so I’m pretty happy with that.”

Sullivan added that he thought King did an excellent job on defense of winning balls in the air against the significantly taller Tyler Williams, who stands about 6 feet, 4 inches.

And Sullivan was definitely pleased with Hammond.

“He just has a no-quit attitude,” Sullivan said. “His pace the entire time is just a luxury to have. He just keeps going and going and going.

“There was one play where one of our center midfielders fell down at the bottom of the circle, and you could just see him sprinting back and he ended up winning the ball. That’s the sort of hustle that’s contagious.”

James Wood now gets a chance to host a regional championship on its home field. It seems like the Colonels do something that’s rarely or never been done every time they’ve taken the field in the past few weeks, and they want to keep that going.

“We’ve worked really hard this season,” Nolasco said. “We’re happy to be here, but we’re not done yet.”

Brandon Dunn made three saves for James Wood.

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1