When William Monroe boys soccer needed to dig deep with Manassas Park threatening Monday night and the Dragons clinging to a one-goal lead, they had some clear inspiration.
“I feel like Josh, Josh Johnson, he’s in the back of all of our minds, fueling us to keep going,” said William Monroe junior Shea Jeffers. “When we’re tired, we just keep going, we don’t stop.”
Monroe held off Manassas Park for a 3-2 win in the Region 3B quarterfinals, locking up a spot in the Region 3B semifinals and putting the Dragons just two wins away from a state tournament berth. It’s the second straight time the Dragons have advanced to the Region 3B semifinals and they’ll hit the road to face George Mason Wednesday for a shot at a region title match berth.
Johnson — a William Monroe football standout who tragically died during a family vacation last week — is honored with a makeshift memorial surrounding the dragon sculpture that sits at the end of the school’s main field. So he’s never far from the Monroe soccer player’s minds.
The Dragons played inspired soccer in the win, highlighted by a pair of goals by Sage Dombrovskis that sandwiched an brilliant header goal by Josh Biggneli on a Corbin Thomas cross. Thomas drove down the right side and then powered the ball over to Biggneli for a 2-1 lead over Manassas Park with 34:10 left to play in the match.
“In the first half we had a similar play and it was on the ground and I talked to (Thomas) at the halftime and I said we’re going to get that goal, we’re going to get that special goal,” Biggneli said. “And it happened — it was pretty big too.”
The Dragons took the lead 1-0 in the first half when Dombrovskis scored his first goal on a penalty kick, but the sophomore standout was far from done. Kameron Ward made an incredible tackle in Manassas Park’s half and the ball squirted out toward Dombrovskis. He unleashed a shot and put the Dragons up 3-1. The combination of Ward’s forced turnover and Dombrovskis quick reaction was a critical momentum builder for the Dragons.
“It changes the game completely — if we get the momentum going, we can get like three goals,” Jeffers said. “Anything they had we were countering.”
The Dragons held on from there, surrendering a goal with 14:37 to play and before surviving a Manassas Park shot off the post a few minutes later. Monroe stayed together down the stretch though and extended its season.
“All these guys have known each other for years and that bond, nobody wants to let each other down because we know how much we want it this year,” Dombrovskis said. “This is probably one of the strongest teams any of us have ever played for and this is our year, we have to get it.”
