Wood Girls Shut Out SVCA, 3-0

Posted: March 28, 2014
By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — After dominating possession throughout the first half in Thursday’s non-district girls’ soccer match against Shenandoah Valley Christian Academy, James Wood made sure there was no letup in the second half.

The Colonels set the tone right away, getting a goal from junior Alex Stanford just two minutes into the second half and cruised to a 3-0 victory over SVCA on a chilly and windy night at Kelican Stadium.

Stanford’s goal came off an assist by Brianna Heustis during a 10-minute stretch where the Colonels put five shots on goal to start the second half.

“It was important that we really came out strong today and our goal was to score the first goal of the game,” Stanford said. “We did, so that was a good start and we really wanted to have a step up on [SVCA] early in the game.”

The Colonels (1-0-1), who outshot SVCA (2-1) 10-1 in the first half (and 17-4 overall), set up all three of their goals with crisp passes that led to quality looks at the net. Three different Wood players scored and three different players had assists.

“For not being out a lot [because of the weather] I thought we played well,” said James Wood coach Jim Carden. “At halftime I told them, ‘You’re going flat and one goal isn’t enough.’ We weren’t passing, and in the second half we started passing the ball. We played them tight, and our defense played well.”

James Wood’s attack led to another quality scoring opportunity less than 10 minutes after Stanford’s goal.

Marissa Maddalena sent a nice pass to the right side of the box to sophomore Emily Denton, who stopped with the ball before firing it into the top-left corner to stretch the Colonels’ lead to 3-0 with 29:53 left.

After scoring a goal early in the first half, Denton said her teammates really wanted to pressure the Patriots to put the game away in the second half.

“I think the second goal is really important for a team,” Denton said. “1-0 isn’t a lead — it’s a start. It’s not a finish and we need to push through, and I think we really did a good job of coming out strong [in the second half].

“I think we definitely put in a really good fight. We have some work to do, and we can clean up some passes, but overall we fought really hard and that was a huge part of it.”

SVCA had outscored its first two opponents (Fredericksburg Christian and Wakefield Country Day School) by a combined 16-0 margin, but the Patriots found it difficult to get much going against the Colonels.

By the time the Patriots got their first quality chance at the net, the Colonels already had a three-goal advantage with 16:51 left.

James Wood put sophomore goalkeeper Leah Hancock in goal for the second half, and Hancock came off her line to try to make a save, but the ball skipped away after she collided with an SVCA player and the ball rolled back in front of the net. With the ball just a few feet from the goal line, James Wood sophomore Makayla Gloyd cleared the ball to end the Patriots’ scoring chance.

“They’re a good team and they were very well organized,” said SVCA coach Dustin Wheelock, who graduated eight seniors from last year’s team that beat James Wood 3-0. “We got unorganized at times. Anytime you give up an early goal it just doesn’t go well for you. They did a good job. There in the last 20 minutes we started looking a little better but we’ve still got some things we need to build on.”

The Colonels’ early goal came after Denton made a nice run to the right of the goal and centered a pass back in front of the net as she approached the end line. Freshman Neary Casebolt passed the ball to Maddalena, who scored just two minutes into the match.

Denton said it was good to get a victory against a team the Colonels lost to last season.

“It’s a good motivator,” Denton said. “But just because we lost to a team last year doesn’t mean we’re going to lose this year. We’re going to come out and fight twice as hard and put in a really good game.”

Emily Woods-Hulse and Hancock combined for the shutout.

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