It may have taken a while, but once Kaitlyn Bodine broke the scoreless tie, the Monticello offense sprang to life and answered back with three more in 20 minutes. After duking it out with Charlottesville in the first half, it was almost all Mustangs in the second half, as they cruised to a 4-0 win.
“At halftime we made the adjustments to better defend the self starts and made our forwards — which is a 5-front line — to play a little more defense,” said Monticello coach Katie Owens. “With that we were able to generate a lot more pressure and power forward.”
Scoring chances for both sides were limited entirely to short corners in the first half with neither side being able to settle the ball and get off a good clean shot. Outside of that, both defenses kept the ball to the edges and while the Mustangs were able the majority of the possession battles, there were no results to show for it on the scoreboard.
Two minutes into the second half Bodine changed that as she collected a rebound and tucked it away to give her team a 1-0 lead.
“(The ball) was behind the line but they didn’t call it because it didn’t hit the backboard,” Bodine said. “So I just kept wailing at it.”
With a little more than 20 minutes to play, the junior struck again, this time off of a short corner after she settled the ball and let loose an absolute cannonball of a shot that flew untouched into the back of the cage.
Not two minutes later, Georgia Proutt made it 3-0 when she scored on a pass from Madison Combs. With the game well in hand, sophomore Zoe Brents rounded out the scoring when she picked up a goal fed by fellow sophomore Maggie Graff.
With the Mustangs up 3-0, the Black Knights thought that they had crawled back into the contest when Kelli Wisbauer cranked a shot from far out into the goal, but the score was disallowed.
“That’s upsetting when you’re on the field and that kind of thing happens,” said Charlottesville coach Jenn Santoski. “It’s hard on the players.”
Less than a minute after Brents scored, the Black Knights appeared to have scored again, this time on a play made by Maddy Eure, but that too was disallowed. Nonetheless, Santoski was pleased with a strong first half and for her squad continuing to fight late in the second half.
“I think this team played exceptionally well for the quality team we were up against,” Santoski said. “They came back after each goal and played really hard and I was impressed by that.”
Charlottesville (3-7) hosts Orange County next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
Monticello (6-3) will travel to Western Albemarle on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
