It's not that Kettle Run lost to Brentsville District last Friday night in Nokesville because the team didn't try hard enough.

Midfielder Samantha had the unenviable task of covering top Tiger forward Ashley Grant and she stuck on her like Velcro.

Harrover constantly found herself on one-on-one situations deep within Cougar territory against the Tigers' leading scorer of the last four years.

Bumping, shoving and purely hustling, the junior did what she could, and it worked for the first half as both teams exited the playing field tied at 0-0.

But Grant is one of those players defending teams can only hope to contain; stopping her is a whole other bargain.

"There's like three players we wanted to make sure we knew where were on the field. You've got to find 10, you've got to find 18 and we've got to find 1," said Kettle Run coach Bob Ruhland, referring to Grant, sophomore Shelby Ward and freshman Bridget Bergquist. "And we put our defense together tonight to, you know, once we gave up [the] ball, we were going to find those three."

The senior captain Grant caught Kettle Run goal-keeper Hannah Carr coming out too far on an attempt to recover a loose ball after the Tiger offense, led by Bergquist, beat the Cougar defenders. Grant easily deposited the ball into the back of the net with 34:23 remaining in the game, giving the Tigers a comfortable 2-0 lead.

"I don't think they really anticipated it really well," said Grant of her own ball-handling skills, though she complimented the Cougars' athletic ability. "It's not like they weren't fast."

Whether at home or on the road, the Tigers have prevailed under every circumstance their opposition, Mother Nature and even Interstate 66 traffic alike threw at them. Brentsville topped home-team Sherando 1-0 on Wednesday after sitting in traffic for about three hours due to a wreck in the road. Even then, Grant made good with the game's lone score.

Brentsville (15-0 overall) clearly adjusted well to the the damp field at home on Friday, especially in the second half where the Tigers' endurance tends to show itself best.

"They're a good team," said Ruhland. "I mean, I've watched them a couple times throughout the season and they play consistent. So even though you play equal with them in the first half, level of effort, or you may even beat them a little in the first half, it's, you know, it's just consistent.

"And when you come out the second half, they're going to come out with a little more energy at you, and they're going to keep bringing that consistent level of playing, You've got to be able to play with them," he added.

Brentsville coach Sean Weddel added, "Before we started the game, we said, '100 percent for 80 minutes.'"

On a pass lobbed from Carr's left corner to the center, senior midfielder-forward Kim Pritchett booted a shot to the back of the net 42 seconds into the second half. She attacked again about two minutes later, careening another scoring opportunity off the goal post to Carr's right side and back into play, allowing the Kettle Run defense to clean up the situation.

Pritchett made another attempt four minutes into the half when she got behind goal keeper inside the box. But Harrover held the Cougars' ground by positioning herself in front of the senior and deflected the ball back up field.

That at least delayed Grant's success attack, which would not come for another minute and a half.

"Well, I mean, she really put her body on me. She's very agressive," said Grant.

First-year transfer Stephanie Pratapas, previously making headlines this school year as a stand-out on the regional-qualifying varsity basketball team, topped off the offensive game for Brentsville. She scored after a shot bounced out of Carr's hands and rolled to the ground, setting up an unimpeded empty-netter for the sophomore midfielder-forward with 10 minutes to go in regulation.

"First of all, what we like to do is move off the ball to create space. If we create space, it allows us to pretty much take the space quicker, allows the space to move a little bit. So, we've been trying to work on that all season," said Weddel.

Explaining how that translates to goals, Weddel said, "It was pretty much a team thing... Everybody's doing their part."

Even with the loss, the Kettle Run girls soccer team has been one of the better success stories of the year for the first-year high school. The Cougars (8-5-1) came out of the weekend guaranteed to end the season in fourth place, putting them in the upper half of the Northwestern District standings.

"We were just a little off tonight. We were just missing those gaps or we weren't getting the ball over the top," said Ruhland.

As for Brentsville, it's pretty much states-or-bust, especially after the then-perfect 2008 squad lost back-to-back post-season games in the district finals and regional opener. The Tigers last qualified for states in 2007, when they finished second in the region bowing out in the state quarter-finals.

Weddel has charged his seniors to remind the girls that they have been to the promised land once and they can do it again.

"We had the taste. Can we get it back?" said Weddel.