A 7-1 triumph on its home turf inspired E.C. Glass’s girls soccer players to do some dancing in the rain on Thursday night.
“I liked your pirouette celebration,” assistant coach Cat Adams told freshman forward Dessi Dupuy after she netted a hat trick and added two assists in the Hilltoppers’ rout of Patrick Henry in the Western Valley District opener for both teams.
“I just get pumped in the rain,” Dupuy said. “I don’t like rain, usually, but playing soccer, it just gets me going.”
Senior forward Jeanine Johnston sparked the Hilltoppers (2-2, 1-0 WVD) with two goals before halftime — the first on a penalty kick at the 30-minute mark after teammate Lindsay Hitchcock was fouled in the box.
The Patriots (2-3, 0-1 WVD) tied the game four minutes later on an unassisted corner kick that Kate Norbo arced over Glass goalkeeper Emily Kerns inside the back right post before Johnston one-timed what proved to be the game-winner off a header from Dupuy in the left of the box.
“Dessi’s pretty exceptional in the air and Jeanine’s a smart player and ran up to where she hoped Dessi was going to flick it and we were able to finish it,” Glass coach Darien McClurg said.
Ashlea Caylor, another Hilltopper freshman, made it 3-1 by gathering a loose ball in the right of the box and slamming it by PH keeper Annie Watts into the left side of the cage. Caylor scored again after Dupuy’s second goal, finishing a great shot by Dupuy that bounced off the upper crossbar straight down on the left side of the goal line.
“I felt the kids really stepped it up in the second half,” McClurg said.
“We had better team speed than they did and the key was just to keep applying the pressure. I felt when we got that third goal, they fell apart a little bit in the back.”
Dupuy had the wind knocked out of her after flicking her first goal in from the top right of the box.
“I just tried to get a toe on it and I landed on my back and I just had to breathe because I lost air,” Dupuy said.
But she caught her breath and took her teammates’, coaches’ and spectators’ collective breath away with her late-game flurry of shots on goal.
“She’s a goal scorer,” McClurg said. “I coach her in club (with Lynchburg United Soccer) and she’s got a knack for finding the net. She has had a slow-starting year and hopefully tonight, that kind of broke it open for her.”
The win may have established Glass as the early favorite to defend their district title.
“Tonight was a pretty good statement win to start the season off,” McClurg said.
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