Pioneers, Colonels play to 2-2 draw

By Robert Stocks
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Even though James Wood and Millbrook played to a draw, the Colonels left the field feeling like they won Wednesday night’s Northwestern District boys’ soccer match.

That’s because Wednesday’s 2-2 draw gives the Colonels the inside track at the No. 3 seed in next week’s Northwestern District tournament.

“It feels like a win because in the [standings] we’re still ahead of [Millbrook], which will put us in third if we beat Skyline on Friday,” James Wood senior midfielder David Pugh said. “We’re coming out hard on Friday. We’ll be third in districts if we win that game, and [if] we win one more, we’re into the district finals. We’re going to break loose in the districts — you gotta watch out.” Pugh scored the go-ahead goal Wednesday to put visiting James Wood (2-9-3, 2-2-2) ahead 2-1 in the 82nd minute.

The Colonels senior was on the receiving end of a nice through ball in front of the Pioneers’ net, and he blasted a shot past Millbrook goalkeeper Trae Drexler.

“As soon as I put it in the back of the net my eyes got so wide and I was like, ‘Game-winning goal, game-winning goal,’” Pugh said. “But I guess it just didn’t work out.”

Millbrook (2-9-3, 1-4-2 Northwestern) answered when the Pioneers were awarded a penalty kick for a player taken down in the box.

Senior Ryan Runion took the penalty and beat James Wood backup goalkeeper Joe Kysela with a shot to the upper-left corner.

Kysela — who filled in for starting keeper Neel Jhaveri after he left with an ankle injury in the 63rd minute — guessed correctly but could only get his fingertips on Runion’s shot.

“I had a hand on it,” said Kysela, who saw his first action in goal since he was playing youth soccer. “I judged it right. I just didn’t get there fast enough.”

Coming off a pair of non-district losses last week, James Wood coach Chris Hild praised his team’s effort.

“It felt like a district tournament game. It was that much intensity,” Hild said. “It was good — both sides. We had two losses last week in non-district games. We came out and changed the mentality and came out with a passion. ... Everyone stepped up from my first starter to the last guy on the bench.”

Kysela definitely came up big. In the 15th minute, when he was playing as a defender, he blocked a Chris Barrette shot with his chest in front of the goal after Jhaveri came off his line to make a save.

Jhaveri was injured in the 63rd minute, when he tried to make a save on a shot by Millbrook’s Stuart Hupp. Jhaveri couldn’t hang onto the ball, and Derek Davis blasted home the rebound to make the score 1-1.

When Jhaveri went down, Hild said he really didn’t know who to turn to until Kysela stepped up.

“I walked out there not knowing what I was going to do,” Hild said. “Joe came over to me and said, ‘I played goalie for four years, why don’t you let me do it?’

“So, at that point, if anybody wants to play goalie, I’m like, ‘Put the jersey on,’ and he did it. He did it himself. He made the decision — I didn’t.”

Jhaveri and Kysela combined for 10 saves. Kysela might end up seeing even more action in net because Hild said Jhaveri’s injury appeared to be serious.

“He’s probably broken his foot,” Hild said.

Millbrook lost to James Wood 2-0 in the teams’ first meeting, and the Pioneers needed a victory to avoid playing in the district play-in game. Now Millbrook faces the longest path in the tournament.

“That made it the toughest trail you can take,” Pioneers coach Keith Kilmer said. “Now we’ve got to do the play-in game against Skyline. We play Skyline Tuesday, we play Skyline Thursday, and then we’d play [top-seeded] Handley on Saturday. It’s definitely the toughest trail.”

And it’s another tough result for the Pioneers to take, because they certainly created enough chances. Millbrook put 19 shots on goal (three more than the Colonels) and had eight corner kick chances to just four for James Wood.

“It’s the same thing it’s been. It’s frustrating,” Kilmer said. “It’s frustrating to have great opportunities with really nice ballplayers on the field for us not to take care of them.”

With just over two minutes to go in regulation, Runion had an open net but sent a shot just over the crossbar. He also had a shot into the net from about 25 yards out whistled dead on an offsides call.

Hupp set up two of Runion’s chances. He heeled a pass back to Runion, who blasted the shot over the crossbar in the final minutes of the second half. He also sent a nice pass into the box to Runion in the closing minutes of the first half, but Runion’s shot clanged off the crossbar.

“It’s so frustrating,” Runion said. “I had one off the bar, one called back, a few that went over — it’s very frustrating.

“We definitely had the opportunities. We just got unlucky. A few of them fell, but we needed one more.”

Josh Marts also had a goal for the Colonels.

Drexler made nine saves for the Pioneers.

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