Handley girls deal Wood its first shutout to claim district title

WINCHESTER — After a scoreless first half in which several high-percentage James Wood scoring opportunities either missed the goal completely or were denied by Handley junior goalkeeper Emma Westfall, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the Colonels would break through.

It was the Judges that found the net first, though. And just like the last time they played, Handley was determined to do everything in its power to make sure that lead never went away.

Mikayla Balio scored eight minutes into the second half and Emma Westfall made 11 saves as the second-seeded Judges beat No. 1 James Wood 1-0 on Wednesday at Kelican Stadium for their second win in three meetings over the Colonels.

When the final whistle sounded, Handley's players ran to put their arms around each other in a tightly packed circle. A year ago, the Judges lost 2-1 at Kelican in the district championship game.

"Since I've been playing soccer here, James Wood and us have always been rivals," Westfall said. "Last season, we lost our district championship to them here. I think just being able to be here for the championship again and then win it on the same field just meant a lot to us."

The Judges will travel to the Dulles District No. 1 seed for the Region 4C semifinals, and the Colonels will host the Dulles No. 2 team at Kelican.

Handley (16-2-1) became the first and only team to beat James Wood (16-2) on May 5 with a 4-3 victory at Handley in which the Judges took the lead for good 10 minutes in. On Wednesday, they became the first team to shut out James Wood's high-powered attack. The Colonels came in averaging 6.2 goals per game and had only scored fewer than three goals in only one game.

James Wood had a 10-3 shot advantage at the half and had one blast from Jolie Jenkins inside the 18 that deflected off one of Westfall's arms and went off the crossbar.

It wasn't an easy half for the Judges, but 0-0 isn't a bad position to be in at all.

"First it was, 'take a deep breath,'" said Handley coach Haleigh Echard when asked about the message to her team at halftime. "We made it through. The big thing was just finding our attack. I told them that I think the first half, we defended 35 out of the 40 minutes. We weren't able to build up much of the attack, which made it harder on us."

The Judges found that attack in the second half. They took the half's first shot one minute and had three of the first five shots in the second half overall.

The last of which was made possible by a long ball into the penalty box from the right side by junior midfielder Payton Craig. It looked for a moment that James Wood had a chance to clear the ball away, but it was Balio that wound up winning possession in a situation in which Colonels keeper Sami Stevens (three saves) came off her line to challenge.

Balio said she works on anticipating and timing where she should be on long balls into the box in practice, and her work paid off with a goal. After she collected the ball, she pushed it to the right, then turned into a shot from about 10 yards out.

The first 10 minutes of the second half was Handley's best offensive stretch of the game, and the Judges were able to hold that lead as a result of improved defense.

The Colonels applied their fair share of pressure — James Wood had a 10-4 shot edge in the second half and took seven corner kicks. But outside of a penalty kick opportunity that went wide in the 72nd minute, James Wood's scoring opportunities weren't as dangerous as they were in the first half.

"We defended for most of the game," Balio said. "One of our biggest points was defending as a team, all 11 of us. I think that's what really helped us get this win."

And when James Wood did a get a shot off in the second half, Westfall was always in a great position to make a save. She was also aggressive coming off her line when she needed to punch away a cross into the box.

Westfall said she couldn't have recorded the shutout without the Judges' back line, which definitely played well in front of her. The Judges feature center backs Ainsley Justice and Mikayla Freimuth, and Lauren Mason, Madison Hobson and Mia Kern working the outsides.

"I've always been super proud of my back line," Westfall said. "I think we've been building our back line all season. It was a little shaky at the beginning, but we've come so far. I'm so proud of everybody."

Echard said it was a true team win.

"Every player on the field, they fought for each other," Echard said. 'It was all hands on deck [with the defensive effort]. Players were coming back, players were coming wide when they were the central players.

"This team has become a family. They're 16 people. They hang out after school, they hang out before school. They hang out all the time. It's more than just soccer to them, and I think you can see it in how we play. We rally around each other."

James Wood certainly played well enough to win, but the Colonels just weren't as precise with their ball-striking as they usually are. On her PK, the talented sophomore midfielder McKenna Newcome grounded a shot wide of the left post in the 72nd minute. Westfall made two saves and the Colonels failed to take advantage of multiple corner kick opportunities from there.

"I thought we played really well," James Wood coach Donavan Russell said. "We executed our game plan. We did control the run of play. But we couldn't get our shots to fall tonight. I thought Emma Westfall did a really good job in the goal all through the game, and we didn't finish opportunities we normally put away. We kicked the ball over [the goal] and right to the goalkeeper, and we don't do that too much.

"You leave a good team like Handley in it long enough, it just takes a misplayed ball, and they can put it in the back of the net, and that's happened. A little bit more communication, a better clear, might have changed that, but they did a good job of capitalizing and finishing for their goal."

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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