Broad Run moved the ball with precision, constantly setting up chances and shots. But it was what they were doing away from the play that boosted the Spartans to a 3-0 victory over Charlottesville in the Region II semifinal Wednesday.
“They move without the ball, that’s what you see great teams do,” said Charlottesville coach Fernando Opere. “They really know how to do it.”
That’s a big reason the Spartans are the defending state champions two years running, going 47-0-1 over that stretch. This year Broad Run may have lost a couple of games against top-flight competition, but they didn’t appear to have lost a single step, bouncing the Black Knights from the playoffs for a second year in a row.
Charlottesville held Broad Run in check in the first half on the strength of goalie Emily Brown’s solid performance. Charlottesville trailed by just a single goal at the break, with Broad Run’s Ellie Zoepfl scoring off a Whitney Church assist, and Brown came up with several tough saves on corner kick opportunities for the Black Knights.
But with the Spartans’ defenders sticking tight to the Black Knights’ talented forwards and midfielders during the entire game, Charlottesville couldn’t shake loose for an equalizer. The Black Knights started pushing up more and more in the second half, and on two different deep runs, Broad Run came up with a stop and an almost instantaneous counter attack. Those counter attacks turned into goals by Rachel Tharp and speedy freshman striker Cassie Smith.
“They earned every goal they got,” Opere said.
It didn’t help Charlottesville that standout senior defender Zoe Ackerman went down with an ankle injury early in the second half, though sophomore Maggie McNair filled in admirably. McNair is just one of several promising and productive underclassmen that will pair with juniors Olivia Levine and Ellie Von Storch next year to give the Black Knights a lot of punch next season.
