It wasn’t for a lack of defense that Charlottesville came into its Jefferson District opener against Fluvanna County sporting a 2-3 record. The defending JD champs knocked on the door early in the first half against a strong Fluco defense to avail in the first half of the first meeting between the two in what’s been arguably the best rivalry in girls soccer over the last five years. Having just missed on a pair of scoring chances early in the contest, Abigail Intolubbe-Chmil finished in the second half. Thanks to a pair of goals from the junior, one early in the first half, and one late to the shut the door, the Black Knights kicked off their Jefferson slate with a 2-0 win at home.
“There’s been a lot of anxiety because we’ve been playing really well, but haven’t been able to score the last two games we’ve played,” said Charlottesville coach Fernando Opere. “This time we were able to break through and that’s big. I hope this is the beginning of more fluid play for us.”
While Charlottesville applied steady pressure for the first 40 minutes, Fluvanna’s defense was up to the task behind the play of its defense and a pair of saves from goalkeeper Nikki Warner.
“We were disorganized early but came back and regrouped so I thought the defense played really well,” said Flucos coach Tara Garcia, who sits one win shy of 100 for her career. “The score wasn’t quite reflective of how the game was played, I thought, because Charlottesville played a really good game and I thought we did too. The beautiful thing is that we get to see them again this year.”
Fluvanna was unable to win the time of possession battle in the first half, but saw a pair of shots just miss the chance to draw first blood when a Daniel Helms shot went a few inches above the crossbar in the sixth minute, and Kat Ditta had the same exact thing happen in the 18th minute.
Intolubbe-Chmil poured on the shots in the first half, and finally pushed through to find the back of the net in the first four minutes of the seconds half.
“Our midfielder, Kaitlyn Cost, she drove the ball around (outside) and then slipped it back and I was able to knock it through into the net,” Intolubbe-Chmil said. “We’ve gone three games without scoring and it felt really good to finally get this.”
From there, Charlottesville saw its vaunted defense work against an increasingly aggressive Fluvanna attack. Ditta had a big second half, earning a trio of free kicks, but the Flucos struggled to get a shot on net. Allison Peino also stepped up late to earn corner kicks for Fluvanna, one of which resulted in a scramble in front of the net that produced two shots with six minutes to play and the Black Knights defense answering the call.
But the visitors were unable to turn those chances into goals and Charlottesville wrapped up the victory against a close rival.
“The strongest part of our team this year are the defenders,” Opere said. “They’re powerful, strong and smart. They set the tempo for us.”
They also helped boost the Black Knights to the critical win over the Flucos.
“There’s a lot of tension between the players on the two teams and it makes it way more exciting to play in,” Intollube-Chmil said. “We’ve lost a couple of times now and so it was nice to hand that to someone else.”
With four minutes to go, Intolubbe-Chmil put the icing on the cake for Charlottesville when she scored on a broken play in front of the net.
The Flucos (6-1, 1-1) plays Louisa County at home on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
The Black Knights (3-3, 1-0) host Western Albemarle on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. as well.
