Walker's four goals lead James Wood girls past Millbrook

WINCHESTER — As Olivia Walker came off the field for the final few minutes of the first half on Thursday night, James Wood girls' soccer coach Donavan Russell joked, "You trying not to let Sid [Rathel] outdo you?"

Russell didn't post his much-used hat emoji when announcing Thursday night's game stats on Twitter. By that point, Walker had already surpassed the hat trick standard.

The senior wing scored a career-high four goals — tying a standard her good friend Rathel has already reached once this year and twice in her James Wood career — to help the Colonels to an 8-1 Class 4 Northwestern District home win over Millbrook at Kelican Stadium.

James Wood led 5-1 at halftime and finished with a 29-4 shot advantage. The Colonels (12-0, 8-0 district) now have 80 goals for an average of 6.7 per game after completing its season sweep of Millbrook (4-6-1, 2-4-1).

Rathel (22), freshman forward Jolie Jenkins (20), Walker (17) and sophomore midfielder McKenna Newcome (14) are the area's top four goal scorers. Each has reached the hat trick standard of three goals at least twice, and they've combined for 11 total.

James Wood's players are well aware of their stats. Rathel (two goals, two assists on Thursday) said they help push them as individuals and are enjoyable to joke about, but the Colonels don't think about them when they're on the field.

"We really just want to support each other," Walker said. "It means a lot to have all four of us around the top of the area, but we're not competing. We're just working together."

The Colonels wouldn't own such a stellar record if they didn't work so well together. And James Wood's high-scoring foursome does a particularly good job of finding each other on the field. Heading into Thursday, they each ranked in the area's top five in assists. Newcome (one goal, two assists Thursday) has an area-best 16, Walker (one assist Thursday) and Rathel each have 13, and Jenkins had her ninth assist of the year on Thursday.

Whether playing long balls, making quick one-touch passes in confined spaces, or holding the ball to wait for runs and passing lanes to develop, the Colonels were a well-oiled machine on Thursday.

"We can really trust each other with the ball, and that's really important with connecting," Rathel said. "We're really good at connecting with our feet everywhere."

Russell said his team connects well with their words, too.

"Communication I think is the biggest part of our offense that we preach and teach and teach and teach," Russell said. "And they're just really skilled players. Our front four or five players, six players, are just fantastic. Their touch, their speed, their thought processes in the game.

"Today I was really impressed when they had a shot, or looking for a shot, they were still looking to make that one extra pass. And I was really happy with the girls coming off the bench and filling in a lot of those offensive roles. There was no real drop-off tonight. They had great touches and were playing the ball to feet."

A great touch by Rathel helped James Wood get a quick start toward the path to victory against a Millbrook team the Colonels beat 7-2 on April 1.

Less than a minute into the game, she played a long through ball into space, and Walker finished the play by grounding a shot past Millbrook goalkeeper Skylar Decker (eight saves) inside the 18.

"We really try to focus on starting fast in the first five minutes of each half, and finishing the last five minutes of each half strong," Walker said. "Sometimes we struggle with that, but I think we did really well with that today."

Newcome fed Walker on an even longer through ball to make it 2-0 10 minutes in. Grace Rivas scored on a shot from outside the 18 in the 18th minute off another Newcome assist to make it 3-0, and Walker scored her last two goals of the half on a shot inside the box that deflected in off a defender and corner kick that went off Decker's hands.

James Wood didn't let up in the second half, getting the first of three goals six minutes in.

"We always want to step up and pressure people," Millbrook coach Rob Douglas said. "We talk about it all the time oif you put people under pressure, you slow them down, and we just didn't do that tonight. They're a good team, and when you don't slow them down, they come at you in waves and they keep coming."

While James Wood's offensive play leads the way, the Colonels have clearly gotten better on defense over the course of the season after losing four starting backs and goalkeeper Sadie Kerns to graduation. James Wood gave up three goals in two of its first five games, but the Colonels have allowed only two goals total in their last five contests. Only an outstanding rocket shot from freshman Kaitlyn Arthur from 35 yards out in the 24th minute found the back of the net against them Thursday.

"Brooke [Geary] and Lyd [Watson] have done a great job, and Sloane Ferrebee has come in at that defensive mid spot and is so dynamic," Russell said. "Her touch is good and her passing is excellent. Madison Shirley doesn't play a lot of outside back for her club team, but has just done a wonderful job of defending and with open-field tackles. Savannah Lewis is away this week, but she's done a great job as a senior on the edge, and Nayah [Edwards] filling in for her has been fantastic.

"And Sami Stevens (two saves Thursday), who hasn't played in goal in about three years, every game has gotten better and gotten quicker."

Douglas said he liked the fact that his team played hard for 80 minutes. Millbrook's players were encouraging each other and yelling out instructions until the very end.

Arthur's goal came off senior Lina Guerrero's first career assist. The cross country and indoor track star throughout her high school career was on the Pioneers' JV team her first three years.

"Every time she showed up in the spring I was always kind of surprised," Douglas said. "She's such a great track runner, but she says, 'I just like soccer, Coach.' She always has a smile on her face. Nicest kid in the world. Works hard.

"It's tough to get her in games that are tight, but I told her in warmups tonight I was going to give her a shot. I told her to go out there and work, because I know I can get work out of her."

Millbrook hosts Liberty on Tuesday and James Wood hosts Fauquier next Thursday.

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