Warriors edge Hornets

In a rematch of last year’s Jefferson District championship, Friday’s soccer game between Orange County and Western Albemarle produced an identical score, but a different winner.

After pounding on the door for a solid 20 minutes in the second half, Warriors forward Aaron Myers scored the game’s only goal to lift his team to a 1-0 victory.

“We really want to play well against the best teams,” said Western coach Paul Rittenhouse. “There are several teams that are up and down right now in the district and there is really nothing given these days. This win kind of lets us pull the belt tighter and get ready for the next game.”

It was a back-and-forth first half, with Orange’s Antonio Flores and Shane Bartholomew coming on strong in the first five minutes.

Both teams struggled to get any shots on net and went into halftime with zeroes on the scoreboard.

“I felt like if you had to award halves, we took the first even though we didn’t score,” said Orange coach Dwayne Pugh. “But they just dominated the second half. They were getting balls with physical play, which was all fair. They went in with a little more power than we did.”

With defenders Tom Rogers and Christian Pettygrove shutting the Hornets (4-4-1, 2-4 Jefferson District) down, the Warriors’ midfield consistently put balls in the middle of the field for forwards Myers and Toshy Penny.

“I think that [Pettygrove and Rogers’] play committed our midfield to play the way they did,” Rittenhouse said. “When we play with that type of aggression on 50-50 balls, in my opinion — and I know, I’m the coach — that was a 180-degree turn in terms of how we played. We kind of realized that that was what we knew we were capable of doing.”

Once the Western (4-4-1, 4-1-1) defense took its hard-line approach to the ball, the Warriors’ offense responded by doing the same.

“It’s a domino effect,” Rogers said. “Once we get in there and get aggressive, it just spreads. It’s contagious.”

Western had a handful of near-misses including a post check of a shot from Chris Abrams before Myers finally broke the scoreless tie.

The junior’s goal came on a 15-foot shot off a Will Odom pass.

“It came off a bad kick from them,” Myers said.  “Will just kind of touched it through, and I ran into the open space and finished it off.”

The Hornets looked fatigued in the latter part of the second half, and with good reason.

It took two overtimes for Orange to get past Monticello the night before, and Pugh confesses that his bench is a little shorter than last year.

“One of our weaknesses of our team is bench depth,” he said. “So as a coach, I’m constantly weighing, is it better to play a lesser skilled player that is fresher and get burned that way, or leave in the starter and hope he’s still got juice?”

Orange hosts Fluvanna County on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Western travels to William Monroe on Monday at 5 p.m.