Denton Leads Wood Girls’ Soccer To 7-2 Win

Posted: March 29, 2013
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI

WINCHESTER — Given that the James Wood girls’ soccer team — which lost its season opener 4-3 to Broadway after leading 3-1 with 20 minutes left — had seen a 4-0 lead whittled down to 4-2 in the last eight minutes of the first half against Warren County Thursday night, one would think that they would take any type of goal coming out of the half in order to reverse the momentum.

But Jim Carden’s worries over freshman forward Emily Denton’s header goal were justified. It’s clear that she’s someone no team would ever want to do without.

Denton’s goal off an Alex Stanford cross just a little more than two minutes into the second half put the Colonels up 5-2, and James Wood controlled the game from there to earn its first win of the year in non-district action at Kelican Stadium.

Denton assisted on the game’s first goal two minutes in before scoring James Wood’s last five goals of the game. She had never scored more than four goals since she started playing travel ball in fourth grade.

Basically, Denton provided Colonels coach Jim Carden every reason in the world to be ecstatic, except for one thing — Thursday night was the first time Denton had suited up for James Wood (1-4) since she suffered a concussion in that season opener against Broadway on March 11.

The last thing Carden wants to see is Denton sidelined again.

“I went wild,” said Carden, whose team was shut out in each of the three games that Denton missed. “I know it’s an instinct, but I told her I didn’t want her to head the ball right now. We’re very leery with that. Once you get one, you can get another one quickly, but thank God she didn’t.”

Make no mistake, James Wood was thankful for the goal, though. Sweeper Emma Watts said the Colonels — who seemed to be thoroughly in control with that 4-0 lead — couldn’t help but think about the first Broadway game at halftime.

“Once we get down on ourselves, we can’t seem to pick it back up very easily sometimes,” said Watts, one of three senior starters on a team that started five freshman Thursday. “We can get down. But luckily today, we were able to pick it back up.”

It was Denton’s impressive speed that did damage in the first half — she scored twice on long runs through Warren County’s defense — but her goal to start the second half was just the end to a perfectly executed sequence.

Midfielder Charlotte Kirks came back to a long ball that was played from the back, and just before a Warren County player got there she one-touched a ball to Stanford (two goals, two assists) on the right sideline.

Stanford, a state Olympic Development Program player, drove toward the right endline before sending a perfect cross to Denton for the header.

“Everyone was working really hard, and I felt like I was letting people down,” Denton said. “I took that personally, and I felt I had to do something to help contribute, I guess.”

Yes, you read that quote correctly. Denton was probably being a little hard on herself — Warren County goalkeeper Melissa Leonard (six saves) made some great stops on Denton in the first half — but Denton clearly just has high expectations for herself.

“She’s just got an instinct for the goal,” said Carden of Denton, who also scored five minutes into the second half on a rebound of a Stanford shot. “She has two or three different gears, and she’s very quick. It’s deceiving. We got her the ball in good spots, but still, she runs it down, and she makes the shots. She said, ‘Well, I had so many [shots].’ I said, it’s OK [you didn’t score more].’”

Carden chuckled as he made that last remark. For the Colonels, it felt good to have something to smile about after their early-season struggles.

Though Denton made the big splash on the scoreboard, Carden was pleased with the contributions of all his players.

He actually thought having to stay off their practice field because of the weather probably even helped them Thursday. In practicing on the gym and outside on the blacktop of late, he felt they controlled the speed of the ball better then they have been.

“They’re great kids,” Carden said. “They wanted it tonight, and I wanted it for them tonight. We worked hard since the last game, and we did good stuff.”

Carden said James Wood still has a lot of work to do, but James Wood figures to only be better when it finally returns for its next game, which will take place on April 9 at Warren County (0-4). The Wildcats are dealing with some injury woes and had a tough 6-0 loss with Millbrook Wednesday.

In addition to having more time to work with the young players, Carden will for the first time have the services of one of its top defenders in junior Meghan Hammond, who has not played yet this season because of knee surgery, on April 9.

“I think [this win] definitely sets us up for the rest of the season,” Watts said. “I can see good things coming.”

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