It’s hard to explain that the Conference 23 championship between Charlottesville and Fluvanna County was closer than the score indicated, but it truly was. While the Flucos might have had more scoring opportunities, the Black Knights defense and a superb performance from Genevieve Riley in goal was the trump card. And with a freshman stepping up for the second night in a row offensively, the Black Knights were able to hold off the Flucos 1-0.
“We played a real battle last night and then had to do it again tonight — and you could see it in our legs in the second half,” said Charlottesville assist Marcelle Van Yahres. “We just had to dig deep and pull out the win. This was really a team effort.”
After a healthy back-and-forth for the first 20 minutes, Charlottesville took a 1-0 lead with 19:24 when Zoe Weatherford punched in a shot off a corner from Emily Thorne in a scrum in front of the goal.
“Emily Thorne is so good at corners, and we look for each other,” Weatherford said. “She had a perfect kick, I went to it and I saw where it was going and just had to kick it in.”
Four minutes later it looked like Fluvanna might have tied it when 3 took a shot 35 yards out and the ball glanced off the cross bar down towards the goal line. However Riley grabbed the ball before it worked its way backwards and it was deemed no goal by officials.
“That really made me nervous because (the shot) was over my head,” Riley said. “Luckily the post was there to save me. That was an eye-opener though. It made me appreciate how dangerous (Fluvanna) is from far out.”
Five minutes into the second Riley came up with a huge stop on Kianna Childress only to make a second save on the rebound and end the treat.
“I just came out trying to close out the space and got a piece of the first shot,” Riley said. “Luckily I was able to shuffle, get up and finish the play before she could get another kick.”
The two met again four minutes later with Riley making a sliding stop. After the save the Black Knights got a perfect cross from Rachel Jones with Brianna Jordan’s header sailing just wide of the net. Things settled down from there until the last five minutes were Fluvanna once again made an offensive push with Madyln Messier leading the way.
“We talked about that if they were going to score it was going to be on a quick counter-attack so we had to take that away,” Van Yarhes said. “We talked about what to do when we lost the ball, getting it back as quickly as possible and if you have to hit it out to be safe, that’s fine. We just wanted to disrupt and reset as much as we could.”
The Flucos earned a free kick with just seconds left on the clock, but Riley came up with one final save to lock up the win.
“It seems like we did everything but find the back of the net,” said Fluvanna coach Kristin Davis. “It’s been the story of our lives this season, we’ve played in a lot of defensive low-scoring game, but it’s something that we’ll just have to continue to work on.”
Both teams advance to the Region 4A North tournament. Charlottesville will host its opponent on Monday while Fluvanna will travel to its first round game.
“Right now we just need to get healthy,” Davis said. “That’s the biggest thing for us — getting some rest, feeling better and getting back to playing our game.”
