Wood shuts out Handley for girls' soccer title

WINCHESTER — The James Wood girls' soccer team took care of business yet again at Kelican Stadium on Tuesday, and now the Colonels hope it will be the setting for a groundbreaking achievement.

Junior midfielder McKenna Newcome scored the first goal 27 minutes in and the second goal three minutes into the second half as the top-seeded Colonels defeated No. 2 Handley 3-0 in the Class 4 Northwestern District championship to improve to 10-0 at home this year.

Tuesday's win means James Wood (16-2) will get the chance to host the Dulles District No. 2 seed next Tuesday in the Region 4C semifinals, with the winner earning a state tournament berth. A state berth is a feat the Colonels have never achieved.

There were a lot of reasons for the Colonels to put an emotional emphasis on Tuesday's game. Handley defeated James Wood at Kelican Stadium in last year's district championship. And the last time the two rivals played, the Colonels surrendered more goals than they have in any game all season in a 4-1 loss at James R. Wilkins Jr. Stadium.

But those emotional reasons took a backseat to a practical one. The top schools in the Dulles District are tough to beat no matter where the game is played, but those schools are a heck of a lot more comfortable playing at home on artificial turf — which every Dulles school has — than traveling and playing on natural grass, which is featured at Kelican. The Judges (14-5) will have to travel to Dulles regular-season champion Tuscarora (14-2-1) for the Region 4C semis.

"We wanted to win so we could get homefield advantage into regionals with the Loudoun teams coming over," said Newcome after the Colonels posed for numerous pictures. "It's definitely really exciting [to win]. I'm proud of us. We had so many freshmen last year, and just getting that experience from last year and carrying it to over to this year, it's been really cool to work with everyone."

Everyone on James Wood was working well together at the game's outset. The Colonels had a 7-0 shot advantage over the first 10 minutes. Handley goalkeeper Emma Westfall (nine total saves) had a handful of spectacular stops in the game and needed to dive to stop Jasmine Hackman's blast from near the 18 just 30 seconds in.

None of those seven shots went in, but James Wood had established how it wanted to play.

"The last words Coach [Donavan Russell] left us with in the huddle were 'play for each other and play together,'" Newcome said. "We wanted to start out fast and set the tone."

Handley weathered the early storm and took six of the next eight shots. The Judges had a golden chance to take the lead in the 20th minute. Emeryce Worrell crossed the ball in from the left side, and Mia Hudson's initial shot was stopped by goalkeeper Jes Taylor (four saves) after she came off her line. The Judges then sent the rebound toward goal, but junior left back Nayah Edwards was there to clear the shot away near the goal line.

"I just saw Jes come out, and I knew a lot of times we weren't there for those back runs [by the opposing team]," Edwards said. "I just felt it in myself to get back there."

James Wood would break through in the 27th minute. Maddie Shirley passed to Newcome as she was cutting left to right, and Newcome then curled forward and and finished a shot from about 12 yards out inside the far left post.

"I was streaking through the middle, and Maddie had [the ball] at her feet, and I was just like, 'Maddie, Maddie, Maddie,'" Newcome said. "She just laid it off a little bit. I kind of kept my speed that I was still going with, took a touch around one of the defenders, and then just tried to get my hips around to try the find back corner, and I luckily did."

Three minutes later, Edwards would save another goal. Worrell was able to push a ball past Taylor after they made contact near the top of the penalty box, but Edwards had ranged from the opposite side of the field and was able to clear the ball away before Worrell could control it.

"That was Nayah's best game she had for us all season," Russell said. "Her energy was really good, Her speed was good. We talked about dropping into the goal, and she just knew when to do it.

"She just worked so well on the wings in the open and worked so hard, and just really showed her speed. She doesn't always let that loose in a game, but she did today. She did everything right."

Westfall made a diving save on Madeline Heustis with three minutes left in the first half to keep it 1-0. Three minutes in the second half, the Colonels took a 2-0 lead after a situation that left Handley coach Nicole Hobson perplexed after the game.

A foul was called on the right side of the field, and the players on the field started preparing as if it would be a free kick outside the box while a Handley player was being tended to for getting banged up on the play. Newcome lined up behind the ball, and Handley players started forming a wall. But after about a minute, the head referee indicated James Wood would get a penalty kick, and Newcome buried it in the lower left corner.

"The [head ref] went to the sideline ref and said, 'Where was it?' And he goes, 'I don't know?' And he called the PK anyway," Hobson said.

In the 53rd minute, Brooke Geary created a daunting deficit when she fired in a free kick from the left side into the upper right corner of the goal to make it 3-0. There was plenty of soccer left to be played at that point, but in comparison to the first half, the Judges' opportunities over the last 40 minutes weren't as dangerous.

"I felt like we played a good first half," Hobson said. "We almost scored like three times. We should have responded better in the second half, but to me that's a 1-0 game for multiple reasons. Just a frustrating second half for sure, some things in our control, some things not in our control."

There was nothing to be frustrated about on the opposite sideline.

"We've been working a lot on 'together,'" Russell said. "In those first 10 minutes, you can see how everybody touched the ball. Everybody's working to keep the ball. So I was really proud of how the girls played together. It doesn't have to be all McKenna, all Jolie [Jenkins]. It's always about what we can do to get the best opportunity. Together has been a real theme for us, and we did that today."

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