Monticello field hockey had one goal, a Reese Murray score from back in the first quarter. But it was pretty clear that to avoid overtime and pick up a win, the Mustangs’ defense was going to have to hold up because Charlottesville was on the attack in the second half.
The Mustangs’ defense was up to the challenge, withstanding a relentless assault by the Black Knights to hang on for a 1-0 victory and advance to the Region 3B semifinals against Independence on Wednesday.
“The most important thing to our defensive play is that we don’t give up — if one of the girls gets beat, someone steps up for them and that’s what I love about this team,” said senior Shannon Bittner.
With sophomore Rylee Clay back there also making some big plays and freshman keeper Ava Barnes making every save that the Mustangs had to have, it was a complete team effort on the back end for Monticello to withstand that equally impressive team effort from the Black Knights, who had juniors Belaynesh Downs-Reeve, LilyKate Sweeney, Aly Seidman, Sidney Gianakos and Julia Smith leading the attack.
“They really took over in the second half I thought,” said Charlottesville coach Kathleen Druzba. “They knew they had to score or it’s it for the season.”
To prevent the Black Knights from cashing in there, the Mustangs had to turn to another young player, a sophomore, to handle duties in front of Barnes.
“We had one of our junior varsity players Josie D’Errico step in and play sweeper tonight and she did an incredible job and she was backed up by our incredible goalie Ava Barnes,” said Monticello coach Kaitlyn Bodine. “I could not be more proud of the way this team played together collectively tonight.”
The Black Knights got a couple of key penalty corner opportunities, one with 4:30 left in the first half when Downs-Reeve made a nice cross that appeared set to be tapped in before Barnes stepped up for the Mustangs and another with 5:40 left in the game that they couldn’t get over the line. The Mustangs cashed in on one of their rare corner chances late in the first quarter when Murray scored.
“We got a corner, Reese Murray was inserting and Kendall Gibson took the shot,” Bodine said. “Reese, after inserting, cut over to the corner and set up beautifully at post position and tipped it right in. It was a textbook corner.”
After that score though, the Mustangs went through a spell that appeared to give the Black Knights an advantage as CHS got increasingly aggressive.
“We got really in our heads for a minute and it took some subbing, regrouping and some side conversations to just say, ‘hey you’re still doing a great job’,” Bodine said. “We still were in it, but we tried to coast for a minute there. We got it together in the end.”
Both Monticello and Charlottesville are young, but the Black Knights graduate just a single senior in Smith, who drove a lot of the action for the squad from the midfield.
“Julia is amazing, she’s the rock of our team for sure,” Druzba said. “She stepped it up every time, every time she had the ball she had conviction and the whole team followed.”
The fourth-seeded Mustangs advance to the Region 3B semifinals to face top-seeded Independence Wednesday.
