WINCHESTER — Neither Handley nor James Wood emerged victorious on the scoreboard in their rivalry on Tuesday night, but the Judges got a long-term advantage.
In a battle for the North’s No. 1 seed in the Region 4D girls’ soccer tournament, the Judges and Colonels played to a 0-0 tie after 90 minutes, including 10 minutes of overtime, at James Wood’s Kelican Stadium.
James Wood (11-3-3, 2.12 points per game) needed a win to get the top seed, but the Judges (11-3-2, 2.19) will be the North’s No. 1 seed because they only needed a tie or better. Both teams will play in the Region 4D quarterfinals on June 2, with the Judges assured of hosting that game and a Region 4D semifinal if they win. James Wood will be the No. 2 or 3 seed and will host or travel to Orange County for the quarterfinals.
The Judges are now 2-0-2 in their last four games with the Colonels dating back to the beginning of the 2024 season. They won in overtime 4-3 on April 3 at home.
“It feels great to lock in the No. 1 seed,” Handley All-State senior forward Emeryce Worrell said. “Going into this season, we had a fairly young team so to get that top spot after a few losses is just awesome.”
Both sides opened the game with a sense of urgency, reflecting the significance of their matchup.
The Colonels controlled a majority of the first half’s possessions and came close to getting on the board first on several occasions, courtesy of five corner kicks.
“The nice thing about set-pieces like corner kicks is that they build momentum,” James Wood coach Donavan Russell said. “We had a lot of ‘almost-ins’ and it felt like that for most of the game.”
Among the many good looks that the Colonels had in the first half, senior Mary Kimble came the closest to putting her team ahead. In the 27th minute, she took a well-executed through pass off the left side and sent a shot across the Judges’ goal that was saved by the diving Olivia Jett (six saves).
On the other end, Handley’s offense ran through Worrell, who single-handedly outshot the Colonels in the first 40 minutes, 4-3.
Handley head coach Mike Danielson knew Worrell would be the key through which his team opened up the Wood defensive back line.
“She’s just such a good player and so dangerous when she gets the ball,” Danielson said. “She was trying to make something happen, and I appreciate that because [she] wants to win.”
The halftime intermission did little to stifle this rivalry game’s energy, even as a fine mist started to fall.
Just under four minutes into the second half, Kimble again handled a long pass, this time off the right side that skipped just beyond the Judges’ back line, and booted a shot that went wide left.
Handley responded with spirited offensive attempts of its own.
A few minutes after Kimble’s near-miss, Worrell knifed through James Wood’s defense on two straight possessions to send her sixth and seventh shots of the game over the crossbar.
Although she couldn’t convert these shots to goals, the Handley standout had a measured approach.
“My thought process was just to find the corners and the back of the net,” Worrell said. “I wanted to take my time in front of the goal because I definitely was rushing and got a little excited when I was up there.”
By midway through the half, the rain had picked up steadily, but even the elements couldn’t dampen the action on the field.
The Judges’ best look of the night came with 11 minutes remaining in the half, when Worrell worked her way inside the box to send a shot toward the near post, but had it knocked away by the Colonels’ keeper, Alaynah McGuire (three saves). The deflection trickled to the front of the goal, where freshman Lorrie Tandoh sent a shot just over the crossbar.
Danielson highlighted the efforts of Tandoh and midfielder Mia Hudson that helped pace the offense throughout the game.
“Mia is really, really dangerous on the wing and Lorrie is super quick and aggressive and scrappy and causes a ton of problems,” Danielson said.
The Colonels looked to take up the offensive in the form of back-to-back possessions deep behind Handley’s defense as time ran down in regulation, each resulting in passes deflected out of danger to keep the game scoreless.
At the end of 80 minutes, this rivalry was headed to overtime with much more than just bragging rights on the line, a fact that Danielson made plain to his team.
“At halftime, I told the team that I need just 40 minutes from you and before overtime I said I needed 10 more,” Danielson said. “It might hurt, but afterwards we’ll be good.”
Handley entered overtime with a 12-7 shot advantage.
At two minutes and 30 seconds into overtime, James Wood’s Maddie Shirley dribbled to the front of the box and sent a shot off the post, coming within inches of securing the No. 1 seed for the Colonels. This would be the lone shot of the first five minutes of overtime.
In the second half of overtime, Worrell went to work early, slicing her ninth shot of the game from just outside the box, but it was collected by McGuire.
Wood was then awarded a free kick off the left side of the box just a minute later, but couldn’t convert the set piece, ending the Colonels’ last chance as the clock expired.
Despite coming up empty on the offensive end Tuesday night, Danielson felt good about his team’s form heading into the playoffs.
“We just couldn’t find that one,” Danielson said. “Hopefully, moving on from here, we can put some more balls into the net, but this was our fifth clean sheet in a row so I’m excited about that. I can’t ask much more than that.”
For the Colonels, Russell was pleased with his team’s effort in a game with so much on the line.
“We struggled to put some shots away but that’s soccer,” Russell said. “Honestly, it was one of the best games we played all season. I’m really proud of how the girls showed up tonight.”
Russell planned to lean on his core of veteran players to help guide his team through postseason play.
“Because of the experience from last year in the state tournament and regional finals, you start to get used to that pressure and I think that’s what a lot of the leadership on our team is showing right now, and you could see it tonight,” Russell said. “I’m really happy heading into the postseason to see that they’re not worried about the big games.”
Worrell said the Judges need to keep doing what they’ve been doing heading into the postseason.
“Continue to work hard, continue to have the tenacity that we have, and continue to grow each session and each game,” Worrell said. “As long as we keep working together we’ll continue to move on.”
Tuesday might not be the last time Handley and James Wood face each other. The rivalry is known for passion it evokes from coaches, players and fans, so another matchup would figure to be entertaining.
“When I was a player here, it was always the biggest game,” said Russell, a James Wood graduate. “Tons of fans. The intensity, the emotions. Our local games are always full of emotion because we’re playing against our friends and people we know. But the girls know the Handley game is special because it’s what I played as a kid. It’s always a special game.”