Sherando Girls’ Soccer Beats Colonels, 5-0

Posted: April 17, 2015

By JOSH DORSEY
Special to The Winchester Star

STEPHENS CITY — The Sherando girls’ soccer team rebounded from an 8-0 loss Tuesday and derailed a three-game win streak by beating James Wood in impressive fashion Thursday.

The Warriors dominated their Frederick County rivals from whistle to whistle and came away with a 5-0 Northwestern District win that Sherando coach Rob Kilmer called his team’s best effort of the season.

“I’d say it’s one of the best performances we’ve had in quite some time,” Kilmer said. “Everything went right. The first key was that we won all 50-50 balls, and everything in the midfield in the air. Our midfield controlled the game and we were composed up top. We finished some really nice goals today.”

Sherando (5-4, 2-1 district) took control from the opening kickoff and put the pressure on James Wood (4-3, 2-2) and its standout goalie Charlie Woods-Hulse (10 saves), testing the senior with shots from all angles.

It wasn’t until the Colonels defense made a mistake deep in its own territory that the Warriors were able to break Woods-Hulse’s goal line in the 25th minute though.

Senior midfielder Erin Magalis (two goals, one assist) capitalized on the error.

“The ball was kicked over and I saw the sweeper about to trap it,” Magalis said. “I said ‘I can get to this’ so I ran through it and took a touch, then just had to keep my composure to keep it low and in the net.”

Shortly after that it became the Magalis and Olivia Elliott show.

Just three minutes after striking first, Magalis found herself open down the right wing with some time to spare. She found her running mate with a beautiful cross to the middle of the box, where Elliott was able to corral it and bury the ball.

“Erin played a really good ball in and I just got a touch past someone and aimed for the corner,” Elliott said.

James Wood pressured the Warriors defense late in the half, accumulating three shots in the final 10 minutes. None caused a real threat to Sherando’s sophomore goalkeeper Amanda Hott (six saves).

James Wood came out in the second half still pressuring to cut into the two-goal deficit. The Colonels won three early corner kicks but were unable to capitalize.

In the 60th minute, the Colonels paid for their desperate aggression. Sherando was awarded a free kick just past midfield. Sophomore Taylor Fogarty played a great ball into the box, where it rattled around and found the foot of junior striker Melida Berrios, who put it in for the score.

From there, the Warriors continued to attack their rivals.

Ten minutes later, senior midfielder Audra Sites found Magalis again making a run at the goal. Magalis maneuvered her way by a defender and converted with a beautiful shot from a sharp angle.

“It was a great assist from Audra Sites,” Magalis said. “I took it and saw I had one defender to beat. It was a tough angle but she didn’t come out so I took advantage of that.”

In the 75th minute, it was Elliott’s turn to once again. Dribbling along the 18-yard box, Elliot made a quick move and fired a gorgeous shot that rifled past Woods-Hulse and into the upper corner for Warriors’ final goal.

“I beat a person and saw I had a shot so I took it,” Elliott said.

The 5-0 dismantling of a district rival is one thing, but the confidence it gave to the Warriors after a tough loss to Loudoun Valley may be priceless as they move into the district and conference season.

“I think that we played amazing,” Magalis said. “We just had a tough loss coming off Loudoun County so we were fired up to get back to our normal play. In the first half we were winning all the balls in the air and that helped us keep possession, then we had some really nice finishes.”

Elliott said Sherando was ready to make up for Wednesday’s defeat.

“I think we were ready to get back out on the field after Loudoun,” Elliott said. “The first minutes with Loudoun we stuck with them, so I think we realized we could step up our game and we wanted to come out and prove that. It helps build up our confidence for the rest of the district games. If we play as a team like we did tonight there shouldn’t be too much of a problem moving forward.”

As for the other sideline, after having their three-game winning streak snapped James Wood coach Jim Carden is confident that his team will bounce back from the disappointing performance. Carden admitted his team may have had a false sense of security coming off a big dwin over Dominion on Tuesday.

“We’ll rebound, district games are tough,” Carden said. “But we got them again. I think playing Dominion and beating them made us come in thinking that we just beat a good team so we are going to be OK. I think they learned tonight that you have to play all the time. Any night anyone can beat anyone and they certainly beat us tonight.”

Carden said the Colonels simply didn’t match Sherando’s energy.

“We came out flat. They beat us to every ball,” Carden said. “They played a great game and they dictated the pace of the game.”

Thursday’s game did not count toward the Conference 21 standings. The clash on May 5 will.