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Spotswood grabbed three early goals on its way to a 4-0 victory over the Rockbridge County High School girls soccer team in a Valley District match in Lexington on Friday night.
Maggie Thorpe scored twice for the Blazers (7-7 overall, 5-2 district), while Nicole Syptak notched a goal and two assists. Sophia Perlozzo made 12 saves for the Wildcats (4-9, 1-5).
Spotswood struck three times in the first 17 minutes of the match. Though RC righted the ship and battled throughout the second half, the early damage doomed the Wildcats on their home pitch.
“We didn’t do our job defensively, honestly,” RC head coach B.J. Flack said about the Blazers’ opening barrage. “It was allowing Spotswood to have those opportunities, and they are clinical if nothing else in front of goal. They’ll finish the opportunities that they get.”
Gracyn Chandler opened the scoring in the seventh minute, firing in from close range after Syptak delivered a cross from the right side.
Madelyn Jones had a chance to equalize for the Wildcats two minutes later, but her hard shot from the left corner of the penalty area was saved by Sadie Mayhew – one of the Spotswood goalkeeper’s six stops in the match.
The Blazers went back to work with two more rapidfire goals. Thorpe collected a pinpoint through ball from Lyptak and twisted in a shot off Perlozzo’s fingertips in the 16th minute, and moments later Lyptak drilled in a free kick from just outside the 18yard box.
In a sign of the Wildcats’ progress in recent weeks – in the teams’ first meeting this year, Spotswood had routed RC 8-0 on April 18 – the home side stopped the bleeding even before Flack could deliver his halftime team talk. That improved the level of play carried into the second period.
“Towards the end of the first half, they finally settled in. They got their voices and took ownership of it,” Flack said. “We executed much better in the second half. We got forward a few times because we were able to win the ball in good places.”
The Blazers didn’t drop their level of intensity, racking up nine shots on target and 18 total attempts after halftime. But with better defensive organization from RC, most of Spotswood’s second-half chances resulted in straightforward saves for Perlozzo.
Still, the junior keeper made a handful of terrific stops, denying Thorpe in the 43rd minute and foiling Anna Malone on two close-range chances shortly afterwards.
Thorpe finally got another one past Perlozzo in the 52nd minute, making a long run into the area and taking an extra touch to pull the goalie off her line. Spotswood’s fourth goal seemingly put the game out of reach.
Yet the Wildcats kept working, and their best chance of the night came in the 69th minute. Sophie Vaught made a long run up the right wing into the 18-yard box, forcing a fine save from Mayhew, who then pounced on the rebound in front of RC forward Sofia Smith.
Vaught menaced the Spotswood defense throughout the second half with some impressive work up the right flank.
“She’s a handful for any back line to have to deal with, with her pace and size and strength – and her work rate is just fantastic,” Flack said of Vaught. “She definitely generated a lot of stuff going forward for us.”
For the match, Spotswood outshot RC 29-8, including a 13-6 advantage in shots on goal. The Blazers also held a 5-0 edge in corner kicks.
Though the Wildcats won’t be happy with the result – especially with some defensive lapses in the opening 20 minutes – they can still see signs of improvement from the early part of the spring.
“We are [making strides] through the course of the season,” Flack said. “8-0 against this team a few weeks ago, and now it’s down to 4-0 for the whole game. It’s progress.”
RC was scheduled to travel to Turner Ashby for a road match last night. The Wildcats will play host to Broadway on Monday, beginning with the junior varsity match at 5:30 p.m.
