Millbrook Girls Hold Off Colonels, 3-1

Posted: April 9, 2014
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI

WINCHESTER — James Wood girls’ soccer coach Jim Carden described his junior midfielder Alex Stanford’s header goal off an Emily Denton cross as “the goal of the year.”

That moment of pretty couldn’t overcome three moments of gritty, however.

Millbrook scored the first three goals of the game in large part because of its determination in the penalty box, and the Pioneers held on for a 3-1 non-district win Tuesday night at Kelican Stadium.

Tuesday’s game was a non-district contest because it was the first of three meetings between the two Frederick County rivals. Some Northwestern District soccer teams are playing each other three times rather than just twice because of scheduling issues in the first year of the Virginia High School’s League six-classification system, so the first meeting between teams that play each other three times will not count in the district standings.

James Wood (2-1-1) certainly played well enough to win in the evenly-played match. The Colonels held a 10-9 edge in shots and an 8-2 edge in corner kicks, and Millbrook coach Matt Cottino felt the Pioneers (4-1) were definitely outplayed in the first half.

But by staying with several balls played into the box, the Pioneers took advantage of their opportunities better than the Colonels.

Millbrook junior forward Casey Ackerman (nine goals this year) scored in the 22nd minute from just in front of the goal after a long shot by Nastasha Justice bounced off the right post and back toward the middle.

Six minutes into the second half Holly Elko scored from 12 yards out after an Alysse Hamm throw-in into the box deflected off a couple players and bounced into the air, and she fired the ball inside the far left post.

Finally, a Devan Davis free kick from 40 yards out was headed in the box by Taylor Hicks, and Ackerman pounced on the ball and knocked it from 10 yards out to make it 3-0 in the 59th minute.

“They got three goals on balls that bounced in the box, and you can’t let that happen,” Carden said. “A good team like Millbrook, they take advantage of your mistakes.

“We kept saying, ‘Win the first ball, win the first ball,’ and we didn’t win it tonight, not in the box anyway. And that’s where it hurt us. It killed us.”

Ackerman said the Pioneers really haven’t had situations where they’ve had to follow up on balls in the box after they’ve touched a post or player first, but it was a good thing to see Tuesday.

“We capitalized on our opportunities, which was positive,” Ackerman said.

For Cottino, Ackerman’s goal was one of the positives in the first half. The Colonels had an 6-4 shot advantage at halftime as Millbrook goalkeeper Caitlin Schrader made four of her six saves.

“[In the first half], I can tell [James Wood was] moving the ball a lot better than we were,” he said. “We were kind of chasing them. They came out a lot stronger than we did, and we got lucky with that rebounded shot.

“At halftime, I told them we need to pick it up, and we need to play to our level, and I think they did. They were looking for through balls, they were looking up top, we started to possess the ball, and that created opportunities.”

Cottino said Ackerman’s second goal was Millbrook’s first off a set piece this year, and that 3-0 edge proved more than enough.

James Wood did manage some second-half opportunities, and converted a beautiful one as a result of Denton’s cross from the right sideline to Stanford, who was able to find the back of the net with plenty of pace after Denton hit her in stride. But a Millbrook defense anchored by center backs Hamm and Hicks prevented the Colonels from getting consistent offense.

“We needed more effort out of the whole team to win,” Carden said. “I thought we had better of play most of the night, but Millbrook played well.”

Stanford said the Colonels won’t let Tuesday’s loss bother them long.

“We have some things we need to work on — one v. one defending, defending in the box, staying tight with our man,” Stanford said. “But we have potential, and we’ve got time to work on things.”

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