Giants score 3 in 2nd for SVD win

Waynesboro scored three goals in the second half to defeat Rockbridge 4-0 in Southern Valley District girls soccer action Monday night.

The Little Giants had trouble getting the ball past Wildcat keeper Cat Lauck. She made save after save, sprawling and diving to make stops to keep her team in the game.

Waynesboro (8-4, 5-2 Southern Valley) kept the pressure on the Wildcats, and before long, the Little Giants pressure paid off as Ali Zook raced towards the outside corner of the box and went far side, past the diving keeper off the post, and into the back of the net breaking the scoreless tie.

“I just tried to go low to the left corner because I knew the keeper was good at making stops on high shots,” said Zook. “It was important for us to get that first goal. We always seem to get fired up when we score first.”

With the score 1-0 at the half, Waynesboro head coach Dani Almarode knew her team would have to have a good second half in order to take the victory.

“Their keeper was making some excellent saves especially from the waist and higher. Our strategy going into the second half was to get the ball low and into the corner,” said Almarode. “We crashed the goal and used some strategy and that is how we were able to get those three goals in the second half.”

The Little Giants took their coach’s advice and were off on the attack. After some play at the midfield stripe, three Waynesboro players took control and had a three-on-one breakaway.

Vicki Andersen shot down field and, a few moments late,r the Little Giants were back on the board again.

“In the first half I was trying to go for the long balls and it just wasn’t working so coach [Almarode] told me what to work on in the second half,” Andersen said. “Coach told us at halftime to shoot low for the corners and I did exactly what she said and she was right.”

Rockbridge (5-6-1, 0-4 Southern valley) was running low on gas after playing defense all night as the Little Giants were wearing down the Wildcats. Nearly four minutes after the Andersen goal, the Little Giants struck again on a shot by Taylor Sayre that found its way into the back of the net.

They would add another goal nearly six minutes later on a strike from Allie Graves to put the game away for good.

Rockbridge head coach Ray Ellington was pleased with the effort of his girls and the play of keeper Cat Lauck.

“The girls gave a tremendous effort tonight. We were down a few players so we had to shuffle some things around,” said Ellington.  Lauck played great for us tonight. She kept us in the game and gave us everything she had tonight.”