Colonels Girls’ Soccer Suffers Heart-Breaking 1-0 Loss To Woodgrove

Posted: May 24, 2014
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Soccer can be a game that can suddenly swing from one extreme to another without warning, and the James Wood girls’ soccer team learned a heartbreaking lesson on the whims the game can produce Friday in its Conference 21 quarterfinal match with Woodgrove.

“It’s a cruel game,” said James Wood coach Jim Carden. “We just didn’t finish when we had chances.”

After controlling the game for over 70 minutes, the Colonels were abruptly sent into a state of shock when Wolverine forward Darby Stephens took a pass from Rachel Judd and sent a shot just inside the far post to break a scoreless deadlock and end the Colonels season with a 1-0 loss.

“This was a sweet victory,” said Woodgrove coach Erin Barrett. “But James Wood hit our crossbar more times than I can count. They put a lot of pressure on us. With them attacking our goal so much, when we did get an opportunity we had a lot of room to maneuver. That helped a lot.”

No one understood the magnitude of Stephens’ goal more than the Wolverines (4-11-1), who had been badly outplayed by James Wood (9-4-4) for most of the game.

“Rachel left the ball wide and I just shot it to the far post,” Stephens said. “After I hit it I thought that it was going to bend out. Luckily it stayed true.”

The Colonels outshot Woodgrove 10-3 over the first 40 minutes of play, and 17-6 for the game. After an uneventful first 10 minutes of play, James Wood, thanks to the play of midfielders Marissa Maddalena, Meghan Hammond and Alex Stanford, began a relentless attack on the Wolverine goal that came close on several occasions to giving the Colonels the lead.

“We were beating them to almost every ball,” Maddalena said. “Our passing was good today, our crosses were good today, and we also had the drive to win. We just couldn’t finish. This, however, is the best season I think James Wood has ever had, and we’re very proud of that.”

Emily Denton had two shots come close to getting James Wood on the scoreboard in the first half, only to miss by inches. Maddalena also blasted a shot over the Woodgrove goalkeeper’s head from 40 yards out only to watch helplessly as the ball bounced off the crossbar.

“It was very frustrating for us,” said Stephens about the Colonels onslaught of shots in the first half. “But we knew that we had to keep fighting as hard as we could or we were going to get blown out.”

With the Colonels controlling the ball, the Wolverines’ only chance for a shot came on an occasional breakaway, but James Wood sweeper Makayla Gloyd was able to cut them off on all but one opportunity.

Stephens broke loose on the left wing with 16 minutes left in the first half, but freshman Hannah Moszak raced to the rescue and broke up the play.

With the game scoreless after one half, James Wood wasted no time in establishing control of the game. The Colonels took two shots on goal and two corner kicks over the first two minutes of the second half.

Denton, who was defeating any and all Wolverine defenders sent against her, had three near misses in the half, and freshman Neary Casebolt had her share of chances as well.

“We just couldn’t finish,” Casebolt said. “We had all of the chances in the world. It was very frustrating.”

Over the first 33 minutes of the half was Woodgrove was only able to generate two shots on James Wood’s goal, and neither required junior Charlie Woods-Hulse to make a save.

“We did everything but score,” Hammond said. “We possessed the ball for most of the game and we had all of the chances, we just couldn’t score. Despite everything, the coolest thing about this season is that we won the district for the first time in school history.”

Still locked in a scoreless tie with 7:30 left in the game, Stephens broke free and sent a perfectly placed shot to the far post from the left wing to give Woodgrove the lead.

“That was a nice goal,” Carden said. “It wasn’t a cheap goal. It was a well-played shot.”

Shocked at the dramatic turn of events, the Colonels were never able to recover and challenge for the equalizer over the final minutes of play.

The loss spoiled the best girls’ soccer season in James Wood history. The Colonels won their first-ever Northwestern District championship this season, and did it with a team that started nine underclassmen, including five sophomores and two freshmen.

“This is another learning process for us,” Carden said. “We played extremely hard the entire game, but we weren’t able to finish. I don’t think that there’s any question, however, that this is the best team James Wood has ever produced, and we have nine starters coming back. But right now none of them are feeling too good.”