Early Goal Spurs Colonels Girls’ Soccer To Victory Over Judges, 3-0

Posted: April 11, 2015
By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — James Wood’s girls’ soccer team wanted to set the tone right away in Friday’s Northwestern District girls’ soccer match.

It took the defending Northwestern District champion Colonels less than five minutes to get the spark they were looking for.

James Wood senior midfielder Alex Stanford scored off a direct kick in the fourth minute, and the Colonels benefited from a Handley own goal on their way to a 3-0 district victory at the Handley Bowl.

“Our goal was to come out strong and come out hard and fast and it’s always good to be the first team to score,” Stanford said. “It kind of sets the pace and the momentum of the game so that early goal was really important for us.”

The Colonels (3-2, 2-1 Northwestern) were awarded the direct kick after a Handley defender took down James Wood forward Neary Casebolt.

Stanford took the direct kick from about 29 yards out, blasting her shot over Handley’s wall and tucking it just under the crossbar. Judges goalkeeper Ellie Volinsky made a leaping attempt but Stanford’s high shot glanced off her fingertips and into the back of the net.

“I just knew I needed to get the ball around the wall and I knew my best chance was going to be back-left post so that’s where I placed it,” said Stanford, of her seventh goal of the season. “I think [Volinsky] got a slight tip [on the ball].”

James Wood kept the pressure on throughout much of the first half and much of that pressure came from Stanford and Casebolt.

With 29 minutes left in the first half, Casebolt made a run up the left side, and Volinsky came off her line and the two players collided about a yard outside the 18-yard box. The resulting red card on Volinsky took Handley’s starting goalkeeper out of the game (and will force her to miss her team’s next game as well) and the Judges had to play the final 69 minutes of the match a player down.

“[Ellie] was making a play for the ball and unfortunately she ended up getting the player and not the ball in a goal-scoring opportunity and that is a direct red,” Lynch said. “That’s all within the rules and it is what it is.”

Sarah Snow took over in goal for Volinsky for about six minutes and during that time she denied Stanford on a breakaway through the middle of the Judges’ defense.

Handley backup goalkeeper Amanda Kesler checked into the match with 23 minutes left after finding a jersey and getting all of her goalkeeper’s gear on and made a nice stop in the 25th minute to deny Casebolt of a solid scoring chance.

Both Snow’s save and Kesler’s stop kept it a one-goal game, but the Colonels’ second corner kick of the first half resulted in a Handley own goal.

James Wood’s Abi Lanham took the corner from the left side, and deflected off a Handley defender and into the Judges’ net, giving the Colonels a two-goal advantage in the 43rd minute.

Lynch said he liked how his team kept competing even though they played shorthanded for three-quarters of the game.

“It was challenging and it’s the first time I think we’ve had to play a man down, so we had to change some things around and change some formations,” Lynch said. “I think overall they responded really well. We created some opportunities once we got out of that initial panic mode.

“Even though were a man down, at times it didn’t look like it because we were creating opportunities.”

Handley (3-3-1, 2-1 Northwestern) outshot James Wood 6-2 during the second half but came up empty despite the Judges owning a 9-7 advantage in total shots on goal.

For the Colonels’ offense, less turned out to be more in terms of quality chances.

Casebolt scored the Colonels’ final goal, splitting a pair of Handley defenders just inside the 18 before dribbling in deep to beat Kesler with a low shot to the left post in the 70th minute.

“We played pretty well but we missed the net in the first half — my goodness,” Carden said. “We sort of went flat and Handley played really well in the second half. I thought their goalie [Kesler] played well. We were looking for one more, and I thought we had it a couple times. We finally got it [from Neary].”

The Colonels’ defense — which also included Stanford moving back from midfield to defender for the final 20 minutes — and goalkeeper Charlie Woods-Hulse really only gave up one dangerous chance with under two minutes left.

Handley’s Leny Marroquin’s header hit the left post and the rebound fell near the goal line but was covered by Woods-Hulse (seven saves).

“A lot of people came in to create opportunities all across the game,” Lynch said. “At the end we put in Leny Marroquin, and I’ll have to take a look at the film because to be honest — I thought it was a goal.

“It may have been a good save, but it looked pretty darn good from my perspective. We still created. It was a great header in and a great opportunity. It was a lot of good stuff going on and we got everybody in and everybody created something. I’m proud of them for playing a man down for basically 60-70 minutes and they responded well. We look forward to playing them again and James Wood’s a great, competitive team and it’s always a good battle with them.”

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