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Friday, May 10 – The Rockbridge County High School boys soccer team got a strong performance from senior goalkeeper John Lindberg, making 16 saves, but the Wildcats suffered a 6-0 home loss to Valley District rival William Monroe on Friday night in Lexington.
With the win, the Dragons (8-4-2 overall, 6-3-1 district) completed a sweep of the season series with the Wildcats (1-12-0, 1-9-0). When the teams met on April 16 in Stanardsville, WM won 8-0.
In the rematch, WM led 4-0 at the half, but the Wildcats stepped up defensively in the second half to limit the Dragons to two goals and prevented the game from ending early due to the eight-goal mercy rule.
Ethan Baker scored from Lindberg’s right side to give WM a 1-0 lead just under five minutes into the game. It was the first of a game-high three goals for Baker. Brendan Myers scored about 10 minutes later to extend WM’s lead to 2-0. Baker then made it 3-0 with 15:24 left in the first half, and Brayan Mencia scored WM’s fourth goal 5:45 before the break.
In the second half, Lindberg made several acrobatic saves, but Baker scored again 12 minutes in to extend the Dragons’ lead to 5-0. The final goal came from Bryan Rodriguez with 26:28 left in the game. For the rest of the game, the Wildcats weren’t able to get any shots off against the speedy and athletic Dragons, but Lindberg and the Wildcats’ defenders prevented the Dragons from doing any more damage.
The Wildcats will return to action on Monday when they play host to nondistrict rival Salem, with the varsity game only at 5:30 p.m.
For the full story and photos from this week’s action, please see our May 15 newspaper.
