Carroll County High School and Radford High School played 150 minutes of Soccer ⚽️ Thursday night on The Hill. While both matches ended in a tie, they were as opposite as night and day.
The Junior Varsity team opened the evening and played through a brief rain 🌧 shower. The two squads were evenly matched and played to a Nil – Nil tie at the break. Chloe Wright was defending the Cavs goal and Danielle Robertson was keeping the home team at bay.
At 19:55 of the second half, Bibiana Rojas Bautista threaded a pass to Sydney Bomberger and the Sophomore found the back of the net, giving the Lady Cavaliers a 1-0 lead. As the clock ⏰ ticked down, CCHS inched closer to a victory.
Kinsley Thomas answered for Radford with just 2:22 remaining in the contest to knot the game at 1-1 and that is how the game played out. At the JV level the teams play 30 minute halves and if the score is tied after 60 minutes, it remains a tie.
This tie was on the cusp of being a victory but Coach Kinney was able to work with her young team which includes six 8th graders and seven Freshman.
Showing the level of dedication to the program, after the match the Junior Varsity team and Coach became the support staff for the Varsity game. Coach Kinney came upstairs to keep the clock, one player became the photographer and a half dozen joined Brett Petty in chasing down the balls as they left the pitch.
All said, a positive evening for the Junior Varsity program, including the 1-1 tie.
Coach Kinney adds her reasons to smile!
Last nights happiness:
- Sydney scored her first goal off of a beautiful pass from Bibiana!
- Aayliah, Aliza, Eva R., Eva L., Carlee, Taelynn kept our back line solid until the last few minutes of the game. I’m so proud of their efforts.
- Chloe is playing amazingly well in the goal. Her aggression and commitment to her team is impressive for her young age. I’m so proud of her!
- Baya, Desirae, and Ithaca helped control the top and bottom of our diamond.
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Varsity : Carroll County 0,Radford 0
Head Coach Adrienne Harris checks in with her thoughts !
” Another game to overtime!!
Last night was a very competitive and a tight one! Our defense (Karmen Smith, Harleigh Riggins, Elena McKenzie, and Laurel Sutphin) held together very strong last night and our goalie Alexis Sheffey came up with many great saves in goal. Jackie Arellano-Torres had a great game at the back of the diamond! She really did well stopping one of their best players in the midfield.
Alongside Jackie in the middle Callie Harris and Melissa Mize also did a great job of shutting down one of their best players. These three also did well of winning the ball in the middle and get our offense going! There was a couple close opportunities to score for both teams. In overtime we were so close to putting one into the back of the net but Radford’s goalie had a great save on a free kick by Callie Harris. Overall, last night was a great team effort to hold Radford to a tie.”
The Three Rivers District this year will be decided by Glenvar and James River on the Girls side. The battle is for third place and both of these teams find themselves right in the chase.
The weather changed in that there was no longer moisture falling from the sky. The surface was wet but the teams played through it.
In the first 40 minutes the play was very even and both teams had two good looks at the goal. Callie Harris took shots at 30:07 and 11:40 but Radford came up with the saves. The Bobcats had two near misses as well at 27 and 13 minutes. The teams headed to the 10:00 break still scoreless.
While the first half was even across the board, in shots, goals and possessions, the second half was decidedly in the favor of the Bobcats. For a solid 20 minutes of play Radford was able to apply pressure on the Lady Cavaliers defense and keeper Alexis Sheffey.
Kudos to the Junior goalie and she turned away shot after shot during this stretch and the ones that weren’t corralled were wide of their target.
Late in regulation the Lady Cavaliers returned the field to a level mode, applying pressure to Radford. Harris received a direct kick and was spot on but once again Radford had the answer.
The Varsity team returns to action 🎬 Monday night when they host Alleghany High School. The Junior Varsity team will sit this one out as the Cougars team does not have a JV squad. The Middle School 🏫 team will play the opener.
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On the Boys 👦 side – our Cavaliers headed to Radford High last night.
Goal for Luis Silva and assist by Axel Hernandez
The scores were 1-0 in the JV match with Head Coach Jeremy Puckett coming out with the victory.
Thoughts from JV Head Coach Jeremy Puckett :
“I would just add that jv played really hard and had many chances to score more and our keeper Fed saved a pk which really gave us momentum to finish the fight.
Also want to mention Luis Silva who scored our only goal and continues to be one of the most important players on the field for us. His work rate is one of the highest on the team.
When he first started playing for us years ago now he wasn’t seeing much playing time but his perseverance and work this have made it so we cannot keep him off the field. Also, Ian Graph who was started the last 2 games and has really embraced the role and stepped his game up.”
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Our Varsity fell 2-1 to a talented group of Bobcats that look to challenge for the District.
Goal for varsity by Bradsel Martinez and assist by Landon Puckett
What happens from here is the story goes to the Coaches in hopes they might want to add a thought or two of their own.
Total goals CCHS 3, Radford 3
W-L-T – Each school went 1-1-2
Folks, it can’t get much more even than that !
A.S.P.N on The Hill 