Girl's Soccer vs. Millbrook

May 9, 2012
By Mark Sawyer

Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Fresh off of clinching its first regular season Northwestern District girls’ soccer title last Tuesday, Millbrook could have very easily been caught looking ahead to the upcoming tournament, or simply taken the night off with the miserable weather conditions Tuesday night.

Instead, the Pioneers went out and treated their second-to-last regular season game like business as usual, battling a torrential first-half downpour and slipping past rival James Wood 3-1 Tuesday night at James Wood’s Kellican Stadium.

It was the eighth straight victory for the Pioneers, with seven of those being district wins. For the Colonels, the loss leaves them still battling for third place with Sherando and Skyline in hopes of avoiding the play-in game in the upcoming tournament. “Definitely the weather wasn’t ideal but they had to play in it too,” Millbrook coach Carter Smith said. “We knew the field was going to be slick and the balls over the top weren’t going to work so we tried to play the feet as much as possible, pressure, and try to make them make the mistakes and capitalize on them. And I thought we did that.

“They played hard. Kids enjoy playing in the rain sometimes. I think they all wanted to get out there and run. The year’s been great, the girls come to practice every day, they play extremely hard. Even in the middle of the season we had a lot of injuries and a lot of girls stepped up and played positions they weren’t used to but they came off the bench and were ready to go.”

Throughout the entire first half the two teams not only battled each other but also a steady rain that made footing and ball-handling difficult at best, but both teams had their opportunities. While Wood was unable to get many solid hard shots on goal, the Pioneers got a huge break and they cashed it in.

Midway through the first half Millbrook sophomore midfielder Holly Elko was fouled in the penalty box just in front of the Colonel net. The play resulted in a penatly kick for the Pioneers and leading-goal scorer Brooke Borlie doesn’t miss many of those.

Borlie was able to beat the Wood in the lower corner of the net to give Millbrook a 1-0 lead with 20:01 showing on the clock.

“Honestly I was trying not to think about it to much,” Borlie said of the kick. “If you think about it too much that’s when you usually miss. Place it in the corners, and if I miss, I have confidence that the people would come in and get the rebound. I think it’s fun [playing in the rain]. It’s not a pretty game by any means but definitely it’s a fun game to play. It’s really scrappy.

“Obviously we’ve got our first regular season championship at Millbrook but we’re not satisfied with that. We want to go on and stay undefeated through the rest of the postseason, on into the district tournament, regionals, and state.”

The weather more than anything else won out for the remainder of the first half, but just as the teams were leaving the field for the break it stopped completely.

Millbrook (10-3-1, 7-0 Northwestern District) was the first to take advantage of the dry skies in the second half.

The first several minutes of the second half were played in the Colonel end of the field, with the Pioneers just missing on a handful of opportunities. That changed, however, when the Colonels were unable to clear the ball from their side and Millbrook freshman midfielder Casey Ackerman found herself with the ball out in front of the Colonel net.

Ackerman made a couple moves on the ball and then spun and shot high into the upper corner of the net just out of the reach of Colonel keeper Vanessa Sousa to give Millbrook a 2-0 lead with 34:25 left in the game.

“Casey had a beautiful, beautiful turn and shot, great goal. We really needed that,” Borlie said of Ackerman’s goal. “It’s really nice, everyone on this team can score and everyone stepped up really nice.”

Down two goals to the district champions the Colonels (5-8-1, 1-4-1) could have easily packed their bags and called it a night but they refused to quit.

They continued to put pressure on the Pioneer defense and finally got one past Pioneer keeper Caitlyn Schrader when sophomore forward Dulcie Kysela sent a shot on goal that was redirected into the net by senior Stephanie Roby to cut the deficit in half with 23:58 to play.

Just when it appeared the Colonels were back in the contest, and thinking about a possible upset, the Pioneers went right down the field and answered in mere minutes.

Almost exactly two minutes later, Millbrook was set up with a corner kick from the near side. Borlie sent the kick on net and as Sousa came out to make a play on it, she ran into one of her defenders and slipped on the wet grass, falling to the ground.

Junior Jennifer Share came up with the loose ball and was able to put it past Sousa and the Colonels and into the back of the net for the 3-1 advantage with 21:56 left in the game.

“We didn’t play them as tough as we did last time but we didn’t quit,” James Wood coach Jim Carden said. “We make these mental lapses. When that happens it’s boom and it’s over. I thought they won about 95 percent of the free balls, the 50-50 balls. You can’t let a team control the free balls and expect to win but they played well. I can’t say we didn’t play well, but I’d like to see us play better, but again we didn’t quit and that's about all I can ask of them.

“We kept fighting and we still kind of control our own destiny. We’ve got Skyline and Handley left. Any team we play, we’ve got a shot.”