Lady Trojans end KFHS’ soccer season
Published 8:09 pm Friday, June 5, 2015
The King’s Fork High School girls’ soccer team ran into a very talented Midlothian High School squad in the Region 4A South quarterfinals earlier this week, and though the Lady Bulldogs improved as the game went along, the Lady Trojans dealt them a season-ending 7-0 loss.
The contest was split between Monday and Tuesday due to lightning and rain that interrupted play 28 minutes into the first half on Monday in Midlothian.
At the time of the unexpected intermission, King’s Fork trailed 5-0.
“They were awesome,” Lady Bulldogs coach Mike Marston said of the Lady Trojans on Monday evening, noting they had players that are also members of some elite soccer clubs in the Richmond area.
“We didn’t play very well-organized,” Marston said on Tuesday evening regarding Monday’s play, noting his players “just were not prepared for that speed of play.”
He said his team would have had to play a perfect game to contend with Midlothian, and then the Lady Trojans got a lucky opening goal. A cross that was intended to meet a Midlothian player in front of KF’s goal actually curved right into the goal without any further assistance.
According to the rules governing regional play, an entire 40-minute half needed to be completed for the game to be called. Consequently, the Lady Bulldogs had to return to Midlothian on Tuesday — a one-hour, 35-minute trip — to play at least 12 minutes more.
More rain was forecast on Tuesday, but the teams were able to fit in the rest of the first half and the entire second half.
The complexion of the game changed significantly on Tuesday. Marston wanted his team to avoid the game being cut short due to the mercy rule (8-0), and he wanted his seniors to be able to go out with their head held high, and King’s Fork responded.
The Lady Trojans scored its two other goals in the remaining 12 minutes of the first half, but they did not come the way most of their conversions did on Monday when they connected multiple passes.
Instead, they played a couple of long balls and two players made one-on-one plays.
“The girls were really pressuring them well, as a team,” Marston said.
The coach said the Lady Trojans became noticeably rattled, remarkable for a team that was up 7-0.
Thinking back to Monday, Marston said on Tuesday, “If we could have played them the way that we played them today, it would have been a pretty tight game.”
His positive impression of the Lady Trojans had not changed, “but they had no comfort level on the ball today,” he said.
Halfway through the second half, they began subbing players out, which favored the Lady Bulldogs even more.
Marston estimated his team had eight quality scoring opportunities in the second half, including one spearheaded by sophomore defender Skylar Wall, and in another instance, sophomore striker Cydney Nichols hit the underside of the crossbar.
In the second half, the Lady Bulldogs probably held the ball in Midlothian’s half of the field about 80 percent of the time, the coach said.
“I’m definitely proud of how resilient they were,” Marston said of his players.
The Lady Bulldogs finished the 2015 season with a 14-4 overall record, the most wins in a season by a soccer team — boys’ or girls’ — in school history.