The pressure was one-sided and hardly subtle. The Albemarle girls soccer dominated both halves of its Region 4D quarterfinal with Harrisonburg. The Patriots dominance offensively might have only given it a slim lead at the half, but that continued pressure carried over into and broke the levees for the Blue Steaks in the second and as such, behind a 4-0 win, Albemarle will get a chance on Tuesday in the semifinals to qualify for a third-straight state tournament bid.
“On a senior night you worry about the ball not bouncing your way and distractions and that’s okay and you’ve got to credit Harrisonburg’s defense early for stacking things and making it difficult early on but we just trusted us and got the job done,” said Albemarle coach Amy Sherrill. “Leave it to a senior, Madison Kersey, a captain, a leader to get that first one and then in the second half everyone was doing their thing and it got easier.”
Albemarle picked up its first goal of the night after a corner kick set up another corner kick and Kersey was able to toe tap a one-toucher from a point blank scrum 15 minutes into the game.
“We’ve been working a lot on corners in practice and it’s a strength of ours that we need to be dangerous with,” Kersey said. “I was just in the right place at the right time and the ball was bouncing around and I just happened to get a touch on it.”
Between Katie Schnell and Makinna Winterton, Albemarle owned the left side of the field. Their consistent play on the Harrisonburg defense wound up taking its toll physically on the Blue Streaks, opening up plenty of crosses and shots from the right which eventually came through.
“Those girls, they might not have gotten credit for a goal but they were relentless and really responsible for setting us up with so many goal scoring opportunities that we were able to convert on,” Sherrill said. “Another senior, Katie is one of those players that just never quits on any play, never gives up and that always pays off eventually and a lot of times for somebody else.”
Albemarle made it 2-0 just over 10 minutes into the second half with Savannah Alexander punching through a shot off in front of the goal off a pass from Gonzalez. Then four minutes later Gonzalez hammered one home on an assist from Emily Ward.
“We came together at halftime and talked about how we were dominating but the one thing we were missing was that last touch,” Kersey said. “In the second half we were all in on the finishing third, really just got everything together.”
Gonzalez wrapped up the scoring with 13 minutes to play when she tucked in a shot off a cross from Alexander.
Defensively, the Patriots were flawless and kept the Blue Streaks from any true scoring opportunities. With the ball at midfield or in Harrisonburg territory for almost the entirety of the game, it was an easy night for a unit that’s only been scored on three times and only in two games, both against Western Albemarle.
“As a defensive unit we were vocal and tried to be a wall,” Kersey said. “We don’t want our goalies to have to work hard. We communicated well and got the ball out quick. In practice we’ve worked hard on switching defensively, working a lot of different people in and out and around that’s one of the reasons you can have a night like tonight where there’s people coming off the bench and you don’t notice a difference on the back line.”
The Patriots will host their Region 4D semifinal on Tuesday with a state tournament bid on the line.
