By Luke Nadkarni / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
The Charlottesville girls soccer team got a pair of goals from Emily Thorne and one each from Cameron Ciambotta and Monique Brown in a 4-0 whitewashing of visiting Louisa County in the Conference 23 quarterfinals Monday afternoon.
The Black Knights struck early when Ciambotta beat Louisa sophomore goalie Columbia Harkrader, setting the tone for the afternoon. A few minutes later, Thorne doubled the lead with a nifty goal of her own, spinning a shot past Harkrader for a 2-0 lead.
“Louisa was playing most of their defenders up to try and draw us offside,” Thorne said. “So we decided to use through-balls to our advantage.”
Two previous meetings between the team were vastly different during the regular season. Charlottesville won the first meeting 2-1 in extra time, then pounded the Lions 5-0 the next time around, leaving doubt as to whether this game would be a close affair or a runaway.
“The first time we played them, it was close and the second time was a blowout, so we didn’t know what was coming,” Thorne said. “This team got into our heads a little, so it was hard to focus at first.”
Charlottesville solidified their lead in the second half. Fifteen minutes in, Brown scooped up a loose ball in the box after taking a bump from a Louisa defender and fired it past Harkrader, making the score 3-0.
Nine minutes later, Thorne put the icing on the cake with a bullet of a free kick from 25 yards out into the top corner of the net for the final margin, finishing a fantastic all-around effort from the Black Knights.
On the other side of the ball, CHS senior goalie Genevieve Riley barely had to break a sweat as the Lions didn’t register a shot on goal all game. Harkrader made several nifty saves on the other end, but couldn’t stop the Black Knight assault.
Charlottesville will travel to Harrisonburg on Wednesday for the conference semifinals. The winner advances to the Region 4A North tournament.
