CHS repeats as champs

Giving a halftime speech is a fine art. Getting your team to respond is an entirely different matter altogether.

Tied against Fluvanna County in the Jefferson District tournament final, Charlottesville girls soccer coach Fernando Opere did both, as his team scored four times in the second half en route to a 5-1 victory.

“I told them that we weren’t playing our kind of game,” Opere said. “We are a team that controls, has precision, and we have to go back and play our game. I said if we did that, we could score at will.”

It’s the second season in a row that Opere and his club have won the Jefferson District title, which is no easy task.

“I always talk about playing beautiful soccer,” Opere said. “I think we are now showing that we are able to play that way.”

Charlottesville made a living off of senior Kelly Short’s sideline play in the second half.

“I think we just started clicking after halftime,” Short said. “We talked about getting it to me wide because I hadn’t gotten it much in the first half.”

Fluvanna had trouble matching up with the Black Knights forward as Short set up three goals and scored once herself.

All three of Short’s assists went to fellow senior forward Emily Perrin.

“It’s just really important that we capitalize on every opportunity,” Perrin said. “I think that during the rest of our season that’s going to be really important.”

Perrin had a monster game, finding the back of the net four times.

“One of the many talents Emily has is that she knows how to get open,” Opere said. “You can teach many things, but how to get open — it’s just one of those things. And on top of that, she knows how to finish.”

Open she was, and Short had little trouble finding her.

It was a tale of two halves for both the Flying Flucos and Black Knights.

In the first half, Fluvanna was aggressive and outplayed Charlottesville. The Flucos dominated the time of possession and held the Black Knights to just one shot.

However, Fluvanna didn’t have much to show for the first-half effort, as only Maddie Oliver was able to tuck in a goal.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t play up to our potential,” said Flucos coach Tara Garcia. “We missed a couple of opportunities and it became a completely different game.”

When the second half came around, it was Charlottesville that came out as the aggressor.

The Flucos found themselves on defense for almost the entire second half and as a result wound up only with only two scoring opportunities, compared to the nine opportunities they had in the previous half.

The good news for the Flucos is that their season will continue despite the loss. With Charlottesville taking one of the two Region II tournament bids by virtue of winning the regular-season championship, Fluvanna earned the other bid by beating Western Albemarle 1-0 on Tuesday.

“We don’t want to end our season with a loss,” Garcia said. “So we’ll have to go out and get it done on Monday.”

Fluvanna will host John Handley in the first round of the region tournament on Monday. Charlottesville hosts Briar Woods on Monday.