RC Boys Shut Out Twice

In its first week of Valley District action, the Rockbridge County High School boys soccer team suffered a pair of losses, falling 6-0 at home against Spotswood on Tuesday of last week before losing 4-0 at Turner Ashby on Friday.

Against Spotswood (7-0-0 overall, 3-0-0 district), the Wildcats (0-4-0, 0-2-0) were playing their first game in more than three weeks, following a weather cancellation and spring break. “We’re rusty, and I know the conditioning is rusty,” said RC head coach Michael Kelly.

The Trailblazers scored two goals in the first half and added four goals in the second half.

Facing a talented offense, RC senior goalkeeper John Lindberg made eight saves.

Of the extra effort the Wildcats’ defense had to make, Kelly said, “A little bit more offense today than we’re used to, which is good, and that’s what we’ve been preaching. We’ve been preaching winning the ball, being first to the ball, shots from distance, because that’s how you get them to go, ‘Oh, we’ve got to guard this guy.’ And it leaves the back open because if they push up, then the back is open.”

The RC coach said Spotswood “is miles above us, with the skill level.”

Kelly said he was pleased by his team’s hard work throughout the game. “The effort was there,” he said. “They were running the whole time, and they just ran out of gas.”

“We’ve still got stuff that we have to work on,” added Kelly. “Our touches need work, but that comes with the season.”

TA 4, RC 0

After their home game against Salem that was scheduled for Thursday was rained out, the Wildcats suffered a 4-0 road loss to Turner Ashby (6-0-0, 4-0-0) on Friday.

“This was a game where we had nothing to lose,” said Kelly. “TA is the best team in the district, so we knew we were up against it.”

The Wildcats changed their formation for the game, and Kelly was pleased with how his players did with it. He said all of his players “stepped up and played the best game I’ve seen from them.”

RC contained the Knights in the first half, with TA leading just 1-0 at the break. “You could see TA was clearly frustrated,” said Kelly. “They broke through eventually, even though John Lindberg played the game of his life, being very aggressive in defending his goal. We had more offensive chances and continued to defend strongly.”

“Nothing but praise, especially for the defense, but the whole team was solid,” said Kelly of his players.

The Wildcats were scheduled to play at William Monroe last night and will continue district action at home against Broadway before playing at Harrisonburg on Monday and at East Rockingham on Tuesday. All nights will start with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m.

Looking ahead after a tough early-season schedule, Kelly said, “It will be interesting to see how we’ll do against less dominant teams. Nonetheless, progress was made, and Rome wasn’t built in a day.”