Western Albemarle freshman Anna Sumpter’s goal in the game’s opening minute was exciting, dynamic soccer.
The next 79 minutes were textbook grinding it out by the Warriors’ midfield and defense en route to a 1-0 victory over Monticello. The win gives the Warriors a one-game lead on the rest of the Jefferson District while the Mustangs slip back to second place.
“We’ve been working a lot on our shape, it’s our main thing,” said Western senior defender Christine Domecq. “We have a check mark (shape) and as long as we keep that check mark, it doesn’t matter how fast you are or how great of ball skills you have, we’ll always have extra people to help.”
Domecq and senior keeper Emily Marbury are the experienced hands along the back line, but her experience has helped bring along a talented group of newcomers including sophomore Langlee King and first-year starter and senior Abby Sewell.
“We have a brand new back line and we’re doing just as well as we did last year which is really cool to see,” Domecq said.
Their collective effort helped Sumpter’s early goal stand as Monticello failed to connect on an equalizer. Sumpter struck quickly to take advantage of a rare lull in a Monticello defense that is usually stout.
“Our combination play is always really strong and they fell asleep on the other side of the field,” Sumpter said. “We were able to attack with a give and go. We kept doing that throughout the game and we didn’t always score but we got close.”
Monticello’s early slip up proved extremely costly, though the Mustangs can still tie for the Jefferson District championship if they manage to win out against the rest of the District and top the Warriors in the squads’ next meeting.
“We weren’t ready — the first couple of minutes we were a little bit flat,” said Monticello coach Craig “After that we regrouped and we reorganized pretty well. We’ve always know that this would be a limited-opportunity game and you can’t fall asleep. We fell asleep.”
