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Battlefield pounds Culpeper 19-5 in girls lax quarter finals
Battlefield drubbed Culpeper in the first round of the Cedar Run District playoffs last Friday in Haymarket by a 19-5 margin, ending the Blue Devilette's season.Jessica Jacobson led the way for the second-seeded Bobcats with five goals and two assists while Allison Rash, Kim Esteban and Ali Schumacher each sank three goals apiece.
Conversely, only Blue Devilette attacker Morgan Martin had more than one goal as two of her shots found their way past Battlefield goalie Caitlin Hester (12 saves) for seventh-seeded Culpeper.
Scarlett Corbin, Taryn Bierhauzen and Emily Aquilina all chipped in one goal each for Culpeper while Lesley Chambers, Morgan Clark, Sydney Welch, Nicole Maples and Jessica Maples replicated the same feat for the home-team Bobcats (13-2 overall, 7-1 district).
“Life is good,” said Battlefield coach Tony Kilgore, whose team earned its sixth win in a row dating back to the regular season.
“We were a little concerned that we would play sloppy with the rain, but you know, they came out. The girls were slipping and sliding, but made their catches.”
Culpeper goalie Nicole Woodworth (18 saves) faced 43 shots from the Bobcats while the Blue Devilettes only mustered 17.
After trailing 9-3 at halftime, Culpeper showed some signs of life at the start of the second half when Martin assisted Bierhauzen for a shot that bounced off the ground to Hester’s left and hit the back of the net.
But Jacobson returned the favor following two Woodworth saves not long after Esteban and Jessica Maples teamed up to take out the Culpeper goalie behind the net.
Maples and Esteban joined forced again immediately afterward when Maples scooped up her teammate’s blocked shot and put it back during the second goal of a 6-0 Battlefield run.
Aquilina, one of Culpeper’s primary attackers, deposited the last successful goal for the Blue Devilettes with 6:25 on the board; her shovel pass dumped past Hester from right in front of the net.
When the ball returned to Woodworth moments later, the unorthodox goal keeper had enough as she ran it up herself, stopping just before the midfield line where she drew a foul.
“She’s an amazing goalie,” Kilgore said. “I know that her save count is one of the highest of the teams that we play. Culpeper didn’t have the greatest district record, and that’s a shame. But their team is a very well-put-together team and Nicole — her style of just being able to work the stick on bottom and grab things on top with her hand — you’ve got to tip your hat to her. She does good stuff for them, and she’s an amazing athlete.”
Kilgore credited his players’ success in scoring to finding the gaps created by Woodworth in net.
“We tell the girls, look for the open,” he said. “If we know the stick’s going to be on the bottom, then top-shelf shots are going to be a better chance and more of an opportunity to score. Look for those and a lot of them. That’s exactly what they did: They shot up.”
The Bobcats cleaned up big time on the floor, winning ground balls 82-45. According to Kilgore, winning the ground war is something his coaching staff stresses.
“We practice ground balls a lot,” said Kilgore, noting that Battlefield’s practice field has an uneven and choppy terrain. “If you can do it in practice, you can do it in the game.”
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