Giants fall one win shy

AMHERST — Jefferson Forest stuck to its game plan in the Region III semifinal against Waynesboro — it controlled the ball. The plan worked and the Cavaliers earned their spot in the Group AA tournament, beating Waynesboro 2-0.

Playing on the turf at Amherst County, the ball moved quicker — the Cavaliers kept up with it. The Little Giants could not.

Even after Little Giants coach Dani Almarode took her team to EMU to practice on the fake pitch, the Cavaliers were just too quick to the ball.

“We played to the best of our ability,” Almarode said. “[The Cavaliers] were fast as lightning.”

Only ten-and-a-half minutes into the first half, Cavalier sophomore Katherine Frank put the ball into the back of the net from right inside the penalty box.

The Little Giants picked up the pace and did what they could to attack the goal, but couldn’t get the ball past the tough Cavalier defenders.

In the 40th minute of the first half Cavalier sophomore Chelsea Hayes scored the final goal of the game. She caught a break through the Little Giants’ defense and, going to the left, put the ball into the right side of the net.

Although the second half was scoreless, the players on both sides of the ball battled for possession and momentum. The Cavaliers also won that battle. With an extra player in the midfield they were able to control more of the movement of the ball and kept it away from their own net. The Little Giant keeper Kate Garber was kept on her toes as the ball spent the majority of the half in front of her.

“I felt like we had a game plan. We played our style of ball — maintain possession. ” said Cavalier coach Stan Golon. “To give up a goal that late in the half is crushing.”

Even after her team’s chances of going to the state tournament were over, Almarode commended her players after the game for leaving it all out on the field and for holding a team that is used to scoring seven or more goals in a game to only two.

“Nobody likes losing, but every team’s season ends with a loss but one,” Almarode said.

The Cavaliers had incentives aside from just wanting to win another game. For Coach Golon, this was his 150th career win as a head coach and they were in this exact same position last season but lost to Harrisonburg 2-1 in OT.

In the end, it was the experience of the Cavalier team that won the game.

“We can bring the pressure, that’s for sure,” Golon said while praising the Little Giant team for never quitting. “Not bad for such a young team.”