Jefferson Forest was named the top team in the nation by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America after last season’s 24-0 record were it won a Group AA championship. That the Cavaliers scored a pair of early first half goals and spent the rest of the night fighting off a comeback from Western Albemarle should serve as a reasonable warning to the Jefferson District.
The Warriors made it a 1-goal game towards the end of the first half and were an offside call away from trying it. Were it not for a save by Forest goalkeeper Jeremy Lee, the game would have likely gone to overtime. Instead Western fell 2-1, but came out as a team feeling as though they let one get away. Cavaliers coach Jedd Zarring didn’t exactly feel otherwise either as he was more than humble in his team’s win.
“It was a tough game and I told (Western coach Paul Rittenhouse) that I thought they outplayed us,” Zarring said. “They out possessed us and we couldn’t much going. We’re dangerous and I think we showed that on our two goals, but we didn’t get any farther than that. They came back and worked hard.”
In the ninth minute of the game Tyler Bullock put Forest on the board just moments before the game was delayed because of severe weather. When the game resumed, the Cavaliers tacked on another goal on a beautiful header from defender Drew Henderson off the foot of Carlos Munoz in the 23rd minute.
Western, playing most of the game without University of Virginia commit Hayes Fountain, came alive after it fell into the sizable hole. In the 33rd minute Grant Tolber found Forrest White at the far right side of the net. White punched a shot that ricocheted off of Lee’s shin at the post of the net to bloop in, making it a 2-1 contest.
“We gave up two goals on two good shots and I thought we defended pretty well on those,” Rittenhouse said. “But we bounced back and our possession was really good. We did a good job of moving the ball around.”
The second half all but belonged to Western with White and Grant aggressively going after the Cavaliers defense. It appeared as though White scored with less than 10 minutes to play on a perfectly placed rolling shot to the left corner of the net, but he was ruled offside. Inside of five minutes to play, Grant earned a penalty kick and went to the left post with his shot but Lee was able to read the shot and make the save.
Western had two more chances to score whistled for offside to stymie its opportunity to force overtime. The Cavaliers finished the last two minutes of play strong defensively to preserve the win.
There were just six shots on net between the two with Lee making one save and Warriors goalie Brett Warnick making a pair of saves.
Western (3-1-1) goes on spring break before resuming play with its JD opener against Charlottesville at home on April 12th.
