Kettle Run Blanks Colonels 5-0 In Girls’ Soccer

Posted: March 16, 2013
By MARK SAWYER
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Coming off a hard-fought 4-3 loss to Broadway in the season opener, the James Wood High School girls’ soccer team hoped to take the next step and find the victory column in its second match of the season.

Unfortunately for the Colonels, Kettle Run and sophomore Alyssa Rodemsky had other ideas.

Rodemsky scored four times and the Cougars scored their first five goals of the season, blanking the Colonels 5-0 in a non-district game at Wood’s Kelican Stadium Friday night.

Kettle Run lost only four games last season in advancing to the Region II Tournament, but the Cougars were shut out by Freedom (2-0) in their season opener Wednesday night. On Friday night, Kettle Run’s offense got on track.

“I think the difference tonight is we came in with an intensity that hasn’t really been there,” Kettle Run coach Elizabeth Martin said. “The girls really came in wanting to put the win up on their season. They just kept the intensity all through the first half and came back out with it in the second half which we didn’t have the first time around.

“Our defense did really well in talking, staying connected and covering for each other which had been a weakness in our first game. They really pulled it together tonight. It’s a step forward.”

Early in the game the Colonels (0-2) had some opportunities with some nice offensive work but were unable to finish. More often than not it was Cougar defenders wreaking havoc in the Colonels’ offensive end, forcing a bad pass or a rushed shot.

The game remained scoreless until Rodemsky found the back of the net with 16:20 left in the first half. Following a foul on the far side of the field, the Cougars (1-1) set up for a free kick and though the original kick was a bit offline it turned into a perfect pass to Rodemsky, who gathered the loose ball on the near side and was able to put it into the lower left side of the net.

With just over seven and a half minutes left in the first half, the Cougars added to the lead when another sophomore, Emily Brummett, got loose in front of the net and was able to beat the Colonels keeper on the far side for a 2-0 lead, which they carried into the break.

Kettle Run outshot Wood 7-2 in the first half but Colonels keeper Emily Woods-Hulse made a handful of nice saves to keep the home team in the game.

However, the second half was all Kettle Run, and more specifically all Rodemsky.

Just over a minute and a half into the second half, Rodemsky scored her second of the night on a shot that went off the keeper’s hands and just into the net for a 3-0 lead.

The Colonels had some offensive opportunities in the second half but were just unable to come up with that pass or shot they needed to finish.

Trailing by three, things just got worse for the Colonels when Rodemsky took a centering pass from Brummett and registered the hat trick with a shot into the lower corner of the net on the far side and a 4-0 advantage.

“Alyssa plays 100 percent the entire time, I liken her to a little bulldog,” Martin said of Rodemsky. “She’s just always there, always pushing, doesn’t give up. Right now she’s even got a little bit of a strained quad and despite the injury her effort was 100 percent and she put those goals in.”

Rodemsky finished off her stellar night with a goal that almost wasn’t. With just over 11 minutes remaining in the game, she blasted a shot to the right of the keeper that hit the inside of the goal post. The ball then rolled back into the field of play along the goal line while two Colonels chased in but eventually just did cross the line for Rodemsky’s fourth tally of the contest.

Despite the loss, Colonels coach Jim Carden was pleased with the effort and play of his team.

“It’s strange, we actually had the shots but we didn’t finish,” Carden said. “I thought we played well enough. Our shots went wide, hit the post, no one was there but that’s what a young team does. We played much better tonight, believe it or not, than the first game. Kettle Run is a real quality team and if you give them any room they’re gonna hurt you and they did that.

“I don’t feel as bad as I thought I would to be honest with you. I see them improving and I see them wanting to get better. We’re gonna be ready, tonight we showed some flashes of brilliance. Like everyone else we just haven’t been outside. Overall I thought we played good enough to score the five goals. Our problem is giving up goals. Overall I think we played well.”

The Colonels, who have been outscored 9-3 in their first two matches, get another shot at Broadway when they travel to face the Gobblers in a rematch of the season opener on Monday at 7:30 p.m.