It’s a team’s worst nightmare. An uneven, occasionally flat effort in a playoff elimination game.
Western Albemarle’s boys soccer team lived through it Thursday night.
The Warriors, who came into the Region II semifinal with just a single loss on the year, stumbled against Tuscarora, falling 3-0 at home with a state tournament berth on the line.
Western actually appeared poised to pull things together early in the second half when the Warriors earned a corner kick. But the ball squirted out and Tuscarora jumped on it to create a counter attack, streaking downfield. Francisco Salvador capped the run and put the Huskies up 1-0 with around 30 minutes left in the game.
“We’re one of those teams that once we score we get little more confidence going in,” said Tuscarora coach Dave Gryder. “It kind of stretches the field for us which definitely helps.”
While Gryder’s squad started riding the surge of confidence, Western didn’t waste any time changing up its formation by leaving just three defenders back and pushing more players forward. Tuscarora struck again though with star junior striker Angel Ceron-Garcia, the Dulles District player of the year, getting going about 14 minutes later to put the Huskies up 2-0. Ceron-Garcia tagged another goal on with under 10 minutes to play to give Tuscarora some insurance.
“We didn’t want to wait until late in the game to see if we could make those changes,” said Western coach Paul Rittenhouse. “We had flashes of it working and we just didn’t do it consistently and that definitely left us exposed.”
Western couldn’t come up with a counter attack as the Warriors’ early struggles to pull the trigger on some strong opportunities stretched into the second half despite the deficit.
“We’ve been patient so I’m not going to criticize our guys for being patient,” Rittenhouse said. “But in the playoffs it’s a little bit more of a nailbiter—all of the sudden one goal can really make a difference.”
Tuscarora will play Briar Woods in the Region II final before moving on to state play. Western wraps up an incredible season that included an unbeaten Jefferson District regular season and tournament title as well as a 17-2-1 overall record.
