Giants net a bit of revenge

STUARTS DRAFT — After Waynesboro fell 2-1 in extra minutes to Stuarts Draft in the two teams’ last meeting on April 2, the Little Giants went into Thursday’s rematch looking for revenge.

In a physical Southern Valley District battle, the Little Giants came alive in the second half, scoring four goals to topple the Cougars 5-1.

“Last game was a real bummer, and we were like, ‘Man we should have beat them,’ ” said Waynesboro’s Taylor Sayre. “Today we were like, ‘We have to beat them, to show we are a good team.’ ”

Three minutes into the match, the Cougars drew first blood on an Erin Burford goal that was assisted by Sarah Mooneyham. Waynesboro struggled to regain control.

“I think we came out on our heels, which is when they scored quickly,” said Waynesboro coach Dani Almarode. “Erin Burford, she’s quick and we came into the game knowing we had to shut her down. She was hard to stop, but I think we did a good job having someone on her for the rest of the game.”

Almarode said that the Little Giants were hyped up about the rematch, and it took some time for her team to settle into a groove.

“The field is a lot narrower than ours,” she said. “The first half we weren’t playing the passing game. The second half they did better with that. We knew Draft was coming into this game with a win off us, and we wanted to show that we aren’t going to go home silently.”

Thirty minutes after the game-opening goal, Waynesboro caught a break when a Cougar foul in the box led to a Taylor Sayre penalty kick. Sayre shot to the right side of the net, beating Draft keeper Sarah Surratt to tie the match at 1.

“The PK was just luck of the draw,” Sayre said. “I was like, ‘hey, that was a foul’, and then I was like, ‘hey that was another foul too.’ ”

Sayre broke the tie at the 28-minute mark in the second half, taking advantage of a golden opportunity. With the ball a few feet from the goal, a flood of purple and white jerseys crowded Surratt. The Draft keeper got a hand on the ball, but two of her fellow players tripped on top of her, knocking it loose and allowing Sayre to inch the ball in between the pipes.

“It got loose and I was just standing there,” Sayre said.

The Little Giants struck again four minutes later, again with the ball feet from the goal, but this time Ali Zook made a clean shot into the net.

“Once we got on the board with more than one goal it started to spiral, and it just built,” Almarode said.

Kelsey Clark added another insurance goal for the Little Giants and Zook scored the final Waynesboro marker with under two minutes to play.

Stuarts Draft coach Caroline Wright said that the Cougars made too many mistakes that gave the Little Giants open looks at the net.

“We just sat too long in the back and they just capitalized on it,” Wright said.

Waynesboro (5-3, 2-2 Southern Valley) will return to action on Tuesday, traveling to Rockbridge. Stuarts Draft will host Spotswood (3-5-1) on Tuesday.