Brooke Bauman made perhaps the most altruistic mistake a high school student athlete could make earlier this week when she admirably donated blood Thursday with the understanding she’d be able to play in Albemarle girls soccer’s game that night with Louisa County.
She of course couldn’t, as the Red Cross website indicates student athletes should wait 12 hours or more before resuming strenuous exercise.
“We had to sit her out on Thursday and I think she was a little mad at herself for making that decision so she came out here ready to go,” said Albemarle coach Amy Sherrill.
Bauman made up for lost time Saturday, registering four assists in the Patriots’ 5-0 takedown of Western Albemarle in Crozet.
“She was ready to get in there and do the dirty work in order to get the job done,” Sherrill said.
Bauman’s first assist, a terrific cross in the first half that found the foot of Gracie Williams on the other side of the goal gave the Patriots a 1-0 lead at halftime.
In the second half, the floodgates opened up as Western’s defense struggled to contain the Patriots, with Hannah Eiden, Sunny Gelnovatch and Katie Schnell all scoring off Bauman feeds. In the midst of that onslaught, Western keeper Natalie Marbury suffered an injury that didn’t help the Warriors get organized on the backline.
Eiden scored with 28 minutes to play in the game while Gelnovatch scored on a header with 20:35 to play to make it 3-0. Schnell scored to make it 4-0 just a couple of minutes later. Schnell’s second goal capped the scoring for the Patriots on a Katherine Brady feed with 13:20 to play.
It was an impressive effort by a team that’s stocked with some new faces in key spots that rose to the occasion in the rivalry clash.
“Some of the veterans were saying ‘last year they got a goal on us and they hit us when it was tough’,” Sherrill said. “Some of the new kids don’t know what that’s like so for them to go out and embrace it and play at our level, it’s really nice to see them do it.”
On the other side of the field, Western couldn’t connect on many passes and struggled to advance the ball past midfield during the second half after a strong, hotly-contested first half. It didn’t help that the Patriots’ defense was on point most of the contest including first-year starter in goal Aiyanah Tyler-Cooper who directed the defense nicely and made plays when she had to.
“This is the first time she’s really seen action and we wanted to see if she could step up and do what we know she can do and what we see in practice,” Sherrill said. “It’s great to see her under the big lights shining.”
