Hinkle lifts Fluvanna

PALMYRA — Over the past two years, close games have been the bane of the Fluvanna County boys soccer team’s existence.

“We have a senior class that, in 10th grade, lost six overtime games,” said Flying Flucos coach Patrick Dieter. “Last year they lost in quadruple overtime to Western Albemarle for a Region II bid. This senior class has a little bit of a chip on its shoulder.”

Close games are Fluvanna’s friend these days as the Flucos picked up another tight one against Charlottesville, winning 1-0.

“We have three big injuries to some of our top players, so our younger players have really been stepping it up,” Dieter said. “I had a couple of ninth graders and 10th graders playing tonight, so it was an amazing team effort.”

Both halves were back and forth in the midfield with each team getting an almost equal share of scoring opportunities.

The game’s only goal came from one of Dieter’s younger players at the 20-minute mark of the first half when sophomore Josh Hinkle headed in a ball from teammate JT Bradley.

“I just saw the ball and went after it,” Hinkle said of the goal. “I kind of got a good bounce, but it was a good goal.”

Once the Flucos (9-1, 7-0 Jefferson) took the lead, the Black Knights picked up the pace on offense, playing the role of aggressor until the whistle blew to end the game.

“Charlottesville has us in the speed department,” Dieter said. “So what we tried to do was take some of midfielders, our speed guys, and try to stay with them.”

Making the most of their speed, brothers Salah and Abdi Mohamed each had a handful of scoring opportunities for the Black Knights (3-4-1, 3-3-2), most of which came in the second half, but just couldn’t slip one past Fluvanna goalkeeper Casey Cagle.

“We started doing a lot of long throw-ins as the game went along,” said Charlottesville coach Stephan Cost. “That gave us a lot more success, but we just couldn’t get it in the net.”

While Charlottesville would have been a lot happier to hand the Fluvanna its first district loss, Cost was more than pleased with the effort his kids put forth.

“I told them to keep their heads up because they played really well, they just couldn’t get the ball in the net,” Cost said. “But we can work on that in practice.”