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The Rockbridge County High School girls soccer team produced a dominant performance in claiming its first Valley District win of the spring, routing Broadway 5-0 on the road last Tuesday.
Madelyn Jones and Sophie Vaught scored two goals apiece, and Lydia Kendall notched three assists for the Wildcats, who snapped their five-match losing streak. RC would drop a hard-fought 3-1 decision at Harrisonburg on Thursday to cap the week at 4-8 overall and 1-4 in district play.
The ’Cats took control of Tuesday’s match in the early stages. Jones scored off of a great cross from Eleanor Dare just 12 minutes in, and she secured her brace with a clinical finish from Kendall’s first assist midway through the opening half.
Dare added a goal of her own three minutes later, this time assisted by Jones, as RC took a 3-0 lead into halftime.
The Wildcats’ swift start was something that the team had talked about prior to kickoff.
“In our pregame talk, we discussed playing on the front foot from the beginning, not letting up, dictating play and going the full 80 minutes,” RC head coach B.J. Flack said. “The girls did a great job of sticking to the plan in how we wanted to play, being aggressive and not allowing the opponent to get back into the game after a strong start.”
The ’Cats slammed the door on the Gobblers with a pair of second-half markers from Vaught, both assisted by Kendall. Vaught’s first goal came 18 minutes into the period, and the duo combined again eight minutes later to make it 5-0.
The RC defense also turned in a superb performance, as Wildcat goalkeeper Sophia Perlozzo needed to make just two saves to record the clean sheet.
Broadway ended the week at 0-12-1 overall and 0-5 in the district.
Tuesday’s victory followed on the heels of a narrow 1-0 home loss to a strong Turner Ashby team. The Wildcats clearly used that performance as a springboard to secure their first Valley victory of the season.
“There were areas where we still could have been better,” Flack said. “Our passes weren’t quite connecting to start the second half. But our backline did not break, and once we got the first goal in the second half, the game was ours.”
HHS 3, RC 1
A shorthanded RC squad fell 3-1 on the road against Harrisonburg on Thursday evening.
All four of the goals came in the first half, starting with a penalty kick from the Blue Streaks’ Hannah O’Fallon. Vaught equalized for the Wildcats from a Kendall assist midway through the stanza.
But Harrisonburg (8-2, 5-0) responded with two goals from Quetzalli Arteaga-Vazquez, assuming a 3-1 advantage by the break.
Both teams had quality scoring chances after halftime, including an RC penalty that Vaught missed.
For the match, Perlozzo made nine saves. And after losing 9-2 at home to Harrisonburg just two weeks earlier, the Wildcats stayed in the game even without Jones and Dare – both of whom are expected to return to the lineup this week.
“I was extremely pleased with how we competed, as we defended well and generated many chances to score,” Flack said.
RC will play host to Valley District rival Spotswood on Friday before playing at Turner Ashby on Tuesday, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m. on both nights.
