By Luke Nadkarni / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
The Charlottesville boys soccer team had made short work Jefferson District foe Louisa County in two regular-season meetings, and Monday’s Conference 23 quarterfinal followed suit in a 13-0 Black Knight victory.
CHS spread the wealth offensively, getting goals from nine different players in the romp. Theo Herrin led the way with a hat trick, while Muse Mohamed added a pair of goals. Charlottesville also got tallies from Barun Tamang, Jake O’Connor, Jackson Ebunga, Mica Girstantas, Zarny Hein, Campbell Brickhouse and Thomas Inigo.
The Black Knights got off to a quick start when Muse Mohamed drew a penalty kick two minutes in and rolled it past Louisa keeper Trey Chisholm for a 1-0 lead. In the sixth minute, Tamang dribbled around Chisholm, who had rushed out to the top of the box, and easily scored to make it 2-0. Then the avalanche truly began.
“Louisa’s in a rebuilding year, they’ve got 12 guys on the bench and we’re running 30,” Charlottesville head coach Stephan Cost said. “So it was tough for them.”
O’Connor scored off a corner kick with 33:45 remaining in the half, then less than two minutes later, Ebunga scored following an assist from Daud Mohamud. Herrin got his first goal barely three minutes after that when Muse Mohamed sent a brilliant cross his way and he easily put it past Chisholm, who to his credit managed five saves against a ferocious CHS attack.
Herrin wasn’t done. In the 14th minute, he found the back of the net again, then assisted on Charlottesville’s next two goals. In the 16th minute, he lofted a corner kick toward the net and Girstantas got into the scoring act, heading it into the goal to make it 7-0. Less than three minutes later, Herrin found Hein for an eight-goal lead.
In the 25th minute, Herrin completed his hat trick when his shot glanced off Chisholm’s hands and bounded into the net. Six minutes before halftime, Muse Mohamed got his second goal of the match, using some nifty footwork to move past Chisholm and make it a 10-0 game.
The large margin allowed Cost to use his less experienced players in the second half and Brickhouse got his name in the scorebook with a blast into the left corner of the net six-and-a-half minutes into the second half.
“They come in and they’re hungry to score,” Cost said of his backups. “I can’t tell them to go out there and not score. I ask them to do their fundamentals properly, and if they do that, the scores will come.”
Herrin, for good measure, scored barely a minute later to complete his outstanding day. Inigo completed the rout for Charlottesville with 28:47 on the clock for the final margin
Charlottesville will travel to Fluvanna, with whom they split two regular season meetings, for the conference semifinal Wednesday at 5:30.
