James Wood boys edge Sherando on second-half goal

STEPHENS CITY — While checking on a situation a few minutes after Tuesday’s game, Sherando boys’ soccer coach Pat Anderson made sure to pay James Wood senior midfielder/forward Jonathan Resendiz Trejo a compliment before he went back to the Warriors sideline.

“Good shot, by the way,” Anderson said. “Nice rip.”

Whether it was a well-placed rocket like Resendiz Trejo’s or a ball that trickled its way across the goal line during a scrum in front of the net, a goal was going to be something to celebrate for the Colonels on Tuesday night. And more importantly, they made it stand up to get back on the winning track.

Resendiz Trejo’s shot from just outside the penalty box in the 60th minute proved to be the difference as James Wood beat Sherando 1-0 at Arrowhead Stadium.

Outside of an 8-0 win against Skyline on April 5, goals have been hard to come by for the Colonels (6-3-1, 3-2-1 Class 4 Northwestern District) since the calendar turned to April. James Wood had lost three of four games coming into Tuesday and produced just one goal in the three defeats. In their last two district games, they were shut out by both Millbrook and Handley.

On Tuesday, James Wood produced an 11-5 shot edge and had some good looks at the net against Sherando (1-9, 1-5). After receiving a pass from Dashawn Paige, Resendiz Trejo delivered in the 60th minute.

“I got the ball, and I knew I could take my man on, because he stabbed [with his foot] right away,” Resendiz-Trejo said. “I went right, I looked up, and I saw the left side of the goal open. I shot it, and it was perfect.”

Indeed it was. The ball hit off the inside of the left post, about three-quarters of the way up.

Resendiz Trejo said the Colonels have been doing their best to improve their attack in practice, and they felt they saw progress on Tuesday against a Warrior team that has struggled to stay healthy this year but is finally coming together. Sherando gave district first-place Millbrook a strong fight in a 3-2 loss on Saturday.

James Wood lost Seth Hammond (24 goals) and Chris Garcia (17) from last year’s team, and Tristan Obert (eight goals) has yet to suit up this year due to injury.

“We’re just trying to make more forward runs, diagonal runs like what Chris and Seth did last year,” Resendiz Trejo said. “We’re just trying to get more used to each other. We’ve got young guys playing up top and have big roles to play, and they just need to get used to the speed of varsity. They’re doing all right. We just need to make more runs.”

James Wood coach Brian Sullivan said he liked how much the Colonels possessed the ball and felt they did make the runs they had worked on.

“We’re starting to be able to hit the ball through and run onto it,” Sullivan said.

One thing that’s been a constant in James Wood’s defense. Led by returning starters Micah Frigaard and Ethan Bowman, James Wood has posted six shutouts and only had two games in which its opponent has scored more than one goal. Ben Tanger made three saves, including one in which he ranged far to his right to stop a blast from Cooper Freer four minutes in for his sixth shutout. Sherando only had one truly dangerous scoring opportunity in the final 20 minutes.

The Colonels also have the option of moving midfielder Ryan King — a starting center back last year — back to defense like they did late in Tuesday’s game.

“Ryan and I and Ethan from last year had a ton of chemistry together, and moving Ryan up is definitely different,” Frig aard said. “But I feel like me and Ethan still have chemistry, and the new guys we’ve brought on have gotten up to speed and they’re talking and doing their part. I’m loving the defense so far.”

“If we get goals early, we’re going to be tough to score against,” Sullivan said. ‘If we can get a goal in the first half to free things up, [opponents] have to start pressing forward so we get some opportunities.

“We’re still getting better. We’ve got young guys like Sam Frigaard who gave us some good minutes today. We’re still learning. We talked about hitting our peak in mid-May, and I think we’re on track to do that.”

Anderson thinks his team is coming along as well, especially since the Warriors have faced a myriad of injury issues. Anderson said the Warriors have yet to feature the same starting lineup twice.

“When we get a couple guys back, we’d get another injury,” Anderson said. “We’re getting there and improving. We had our opportunities [today], but we’ve just got to make the most of them. Tonight was a positive night even though we didn’t win. It was competitive back-and-forth. We just messed up 10 seconds on that one shot.”

Connor Sanders had three saves for Sherando.

James Wood is in action next Tuesday when it hosts Liberty. The Warriors travel to Kettle Run on April 20.

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