“We have competition amongst ourselves every day for who’s going to play, who’s going to start,” Sherrill said. “But it feels g
ood to be
able to take some pressure off the starters.”
By Luke Nadkarni / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
Albemarle’s girls soccer team took an early lead and never looked back in a 4-0 win over visiting Western Albemarle on Monday night.
The Patriots struck first in the 11th minute when Katherine Brady scored off an assist from Jazzy Loredo, beating Western keeper Erin Farina to put Albemarle in front.
That goal came during a first half which AHS dominated, and the Patriots threatened several times thereafter. Its best opportunity came six minutes later when Carmen Thomas struck a shot from just inside the box past Farina, but the ball zipped just to the right of the net.
The Patriots nearly doubled their lead in the opening minutes of the second half when Hannah Eiden found herself all alone on a breakaway after corralling a loose ball, but Farina got just enough to keep it out of the net. But that didn’t deter Brooke Bauman, who took a pass from Carmen Thomas found the back of the net a minute later to make it 2-0 five minutes into the second half.
“Western is really good, they’re well-coached, they’ve got some young studs on their team,” AHS coach Amy Sherrill said. “So I was really pleased with our performance tonight. We had some great opportunities which we we fortunate enough to capitalize on.”
Thomas, a JMU commit, nearly got a goal of her own on two occasions, both on long shots from well outside the box. The first one missed over the crossbar, while the second curved just wide left.
The Warriors showed some life in the 55th minute when Emma Ratcliffe got behind the Patriot back line for seemingly the first time all night and had a shot opportunity, but missed to the right.
Albemarle added two goals in the middle stages of the second half, first by Leticia Freitas off a rainbow of an assist from Loredo. A few minutes later, Gracie Williams got in on the action by bagging a cross from Katie Schnell to make it 4-0, giving the Patriots more than enough breathing room.
Senior goalkeeper Grace Leytham barely had to break a sweat before being replaced by Ayanna Tyler-Cooper with 14 minutes remaining. Tyler-Cooper saved the only shot she saw.
“We have competition amongst ourselves every day for who’s going to play, who’s going to start,” Sherrill said. “But it feels good to be able to take some pressure off the starters.”
