WINCHESTER — Moderate rain fell steadily throughout Thursday’s girls’ soccer game at James R. Wilkins Jr. Stadium, but when it was over, all James Wood coach Donavan Russell could see was sunshine.
“The joy in the girls’ faces coming off the field … it was like we won a regional game or a championship,” Russell said. “They were just so excited to finally get here and get the job done.”
By the score of 2-1, James Wood won at Handley for the first time since the 2021 season. And while Thursday’s win might not have been a playoff game, it sets the Colonels up nicely for the postseason.
James Wood (12-3-1) earned the No. 1 North seed for the Region 4D tournament that begins Tuesday and dropped Handley (11-3-2) to the North No. 2 seed. In the quarterfinals, the Colonels will play the winner of Tuesday’s first round game between No. 4 Sherando-No. 5 Orange County on a date to be determined, while the Judges will play No. 3 Charlottesville at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at Shenandoah University’s Shentel Stadium.
The Colonels won their ninth straight game and avenged a 2-0 loss to the Judges at home on March 26. James Wood took a 1-0 lead with 30 seconds left in the first half on a goal by senior forward Avery Wright and went up 2-0 with four minutes left on the first career goal by freshman Autumn Gilbert.
While the Colonels did plenty of screaming on Thursday, Wright feels like the Colonels have only begun to roar.
“I think we’re feeling good, we’re feeling hot,” Wright said. “We’re really excited to keep moving forward, and we’re definitely locked in with this intensity. And we have more to give.”
At the game’s outset, it didn’t appear as if James Wood’s rematch with Handley would turn out any better than the first time.
In the first six minutes, Alaynah McGuire had to make three of her six saves for James Wood. Through 19 minutes, Handley had a 6-0 shot edge, but the Colonels would not allow a single Judges shot attempt in the last 21 minutes of the opening half.
“I thought we really played how we wanted to play,” McGuire said. “We went out there and knew what we wanted, so we went and got what we wanted.”
And with 30 seconds left in the first half, the Colonels scored a much-desired goal. After taking a square pass from Wright near midfield, Delaney Newcome had the first of her two assists by threading a pass perfectly into space. Wright ran onto it, then dribbled into the box before shooting less than 10 yards away into the goal past Abby Melester.
“We had a great one-two [combination],” Wright said. “[Newcome and I] knew it was coming. We had had a few passes in the beginning that weren’t quite hitting, but we knew on that one [it was a good situation]. We were talking, we were moving fast, and I knew I just had to finish.”
Russell thought James Wood was “a little shaky” in the first half. Handley had a shot advantage in both halves (6-2 in the first and 7-4 in the second), but he felt the Colonels built off the Wright goal to play stronger in the last 40 minutes than they did in the first 40 minutes.
“I really liked the changes at halftime,” Russell said. “We just talked more about shorter passes and controlling touches. And we really wanted the seniors to step up and be the best players on the field, and they did that. They fought hard the second half.”
Handley’s best chance to tie the game at 1 came in the 72nd minute. McGuire ranged to her right to bat away a shot from outside the 18 to her left. The rebound bounced to a Handley player about 10 yards from goal, but the ball was knocked over the crossbar.
James Wood did not send a shot on goal from the 28-minute mark to the four-minute mark of the second half, but the wait proved to worth it for the numerous Colonel fans, who were on their feet for most of the game in the wet weather.
Newcome sent a ball from the left corner into the middle of the penalty box. There was a lot of traffic in front of the goal, and one of the smallest players on the field found a way to knock it over the goal line.
“Everyone was right in the middle,” Gilbert said. “I just had to give my all and hit [the ball with my upper body] as hard as I could.”
Gilbert is one of just three freshmen on James Wood, and Russell has enjoyed watching the midfielder grow this season.
“We put a ton of pressure on her, and she just improved and improved and improved,” Russell said. “We preach the back-post runs for crosses all the time. To see her do something like that at the end of May and the end of the season, it’s awesome. It’s just what we hope for.
“And the seniors, and our junior leaders on the team, they get a lot of credit for how the freshmen and newcomers have played, for sure. I love seeing them. They play hard.”
Less than 10 minutes after her goal, Gilbert was serenaded with a rendition of “Happy Birthday.” A couple minutes after that, Wright was excitedly talking about Gilbert’s birthday.
“It feels unreal,” said Gilbert about scoring such an important goal.
Handley would fight back with a fury, though.
Forty seconds later, a James Wood infraction resulted in a penalty kick, and Mia Hudson buried a shot into the right side of the net to become the first player to score on James Wood since Kettle Run on April 14 — the Colonels had recorded eight straight shutouts.
Eighty seconds after that, Handley had a chance at an equalizer when Hudson beat a Colonel defender off the dribble in the box left of the goal from inside 10 yards. Hudson fired a rocket toward the inside of the near post, but McGuire was there to parry the ball away for a corner kick. The Judges would not come close to scoring again.
McGuire set the program record for shutouts with 11 her freshman year, and her blank sheet in the Colonels’ previous game against Sherando was her 12th this season.
“I’m incredibly proud of myself, and I have to give a huge thanks to my defense,” McGuire said. “I could not do it without any of them. They help me though a lot of it. They saved me more times than I’d like to admit.”
McGuire chuckled a bit as she said that. James Wood’s shutout streak might be over, but Russell once again liked what she and the rest of the defense did on Thursday.
“She’s a good, solid keeper,” Russell said. “Her hands were great tonight in this kind of weather. The catches, the goal kicks, everything was just so good. She just really works on her craft.”
Handley coach Mike Danielson felt like the Judges played well enough to win, but the Judges couldn’t generate as much pressure as they wanted in the final offensive third.
“I thought we were the better team overall,” Danielson said. “Soccer can be a cruel sport. You can be the better team and still lose, and I think that was the case. Give [James Wood] credit. They took two really good chances and scored on both of them. They did what they needed to do and they got the win. They scored and made it difficult for us to score. I’m happy with the way we played. We just have to work on finishing.”
With the win, James Wood captured the Blue Ridge United Cup for having the best record in games involving Winchester-Frederick County schools.
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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