By Logan Riddick / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
A strong season for the Charlottesville boys’ soccer team came to an end Monday night with a 2-1 loss to E.C. Glass in a VHSL 4A North tournament quarterfinal.
“We fought right to the end, and those guys were sweating it with 25 seconds left,” said Charlottesville coach Stephan Cost. “A couple more balls drop our way tonight and I think this one’s a winnable game.”
The Black Knights fielded a much different lineup than during last week’s run to the Conference 23 championship, as circumstances forced Charlottesville (14-5-1) to shuffle positions and call upon young reserves.
“We came in missing three starters because of injuries and because of a [red card] suspension,” said Black Knight senior Connory Timmins [himself sidelined due to a concussion]. “We fought hard, but we gave up that goal in the second half which shifted the momentum of the game. We tried to fight back but none of our attacks were working.”
The defense held until the 33rd minute, when in transition Hilltoppers’ senior midfielder Jack Valentine fed junior striker Pierre Taulere who broke free down the middle and connected from 20 yards out.
“We told [Pierre], ‘what they’re doing is giving room, so let’s look to play your feet and look for people running off you,’” said E.C. Glass coach Michael Releford. “Obviously, technically he’s very good and very strong. He’s really stepped up here in the postseason and kind of put us on his shoulders.”
Charlottesville struggled offensively in the first half, firing just one shot compared to four by the Hilltoppers.
“I think we were undersized compared to E.C. Glass,” said Charlottesville senior Scott Christman. “I think they won a lot of the headers and 50/50 balls, so that’s one of the reasons we fell behind early.”
Trailing 1-0 in the locker room, Cost delivered a pep talk to refocus his squad, looking for second half results similar to the Knights’ last two games against Handley and Harrisonburg.
“I said, ‘let’s be excited about this,’” said Cost. “They’re not outplaying us. We just need to play our game, which is quick attacking, get-the-ball-going. They came right out and responded.”
Just 43 seconds into the second half, Theo Heard scored the equalizer on an assist from Thomas Birle.
“Theo’s a lefty and he likes to get forward, but he started out playing left back,” Cost said. “We came out of halftime, and that was a change. We moved Theo forward to get him in the attack.”
The Hilltoppers stemmed the Black Knights’ momentum just over four minutes later, as Taulere netted his second goal of the game.
“I think the team was pretty down when [CHS] scored the goal,” said Taulere. “Someone needed to step up, and I tried my best. I think it changed the game because we scored really quickly, and it brought them down again.”
His coach agreed, citing the Hilltoppers’ response as a yearlong point of emphasis.
“We talk about in practice all the time that the two minutes after you score a goal or get scored on are the most important two minutes of a game,” Releford said. “It was good that when our guys got scored on, you could see them get a little more energy under their step, and say, ‘hey, we need to get that back.’”
Heard got another look in the fiftieth minute for Charlottesville, but his shot from the left side drilled the post near the top-corner of the goal, and the ball caromed out over the end line. Five minutes later, on a free, Jake O’Conner took aim from long-range and saw the ball sail just over the crossbar.
Down the stretch, Charlottesville goalie Erik Quigg came up with three saves to keep the deficit at one, including a diving stop to deny Taulere a hat trick.
“I don’t really think about the saves I make,” Quigg said. “Our defense kind of contained them and forced them to take outside shots, which was nice.”
Unfortunately for the home crowd, the Black Knights failed to generate a shot over the final twenty-five minutes. Glass dominated shooting again in the second half by an 8-3 margin.
“When they moved to the three kids up top, more or less a 4-3-3, I thought we did a great job with getting the balls wide,” said Releford. “We really attacked the flanks well and put a lot of pressure on their backs. I knew [CHS] was missing a center back and one outside back, so we really wanted to push the issue of getting balls wide.”
The Hilltoppers (17-3-2) advance to play Loudoun County on Wednesday.
