Glass girls, boys soccer teams dominant in WVD semis

The first blowout was expected. The second came as a complete surprise.

When E.C. Glass’ girls and boys soccer teams hosted GW-Danville and William Fleming, respectively, in Western Valley District tournament semifinals Thursday night at City Stadium, everyone knew the Hilltoppers’ girls were heavy favorites.

The regular-season champions had beaten the Eagles by 6-1 and 7-0 scores earlier this spring and topped that with a 10-0 triumph to advance to tonight’s championship game against Patrick Henry.

Few could have expected Glass’ boys to win by nearly as decisive a margin, 7-0 over the Colonels, after the Hilltoppers played them to a 2-2 draw and prevailed by a 2-1 score in the regular season.

“Both games were close, good contests,” Glass first-year coach Randy Turille said. “This was so unexpected. I didn’t see it coming. I’m still kind of in shock over the way we came out and played tonight.”

He said an eight-day layoff after a regular-season-ending 6-0 shutout of Franklin County may have helped.

“We hadn’t played in eight days so the guys were ready to get out on the pitch and play against somebody other than themselves,” Turille said. “The guys came out fired up, with a little pressure on them knowing they had to win or the season was over. We were up 3-0 in the first 25 minutes and that was huge.”

The Hilltopper girls (15-2) struck even more quickly and decisively against the Eagles (5-11), with sophomore striker Dessie Dupuy netting a goal off an assist from Genna Freeman just 13 seconds into the action.”

“When you get a goal quick like that, their whole team deflated,” Glass coach Darien McClurg said. “Playing back-to-back games, (Thursday and tonight) we were able to sit our starters after scoring three goals in the first five minutes.”

McClurg expected Patrick Henry would have had to play its starters for close to the full 80 minutes in its semifinal win over Franklin County, which may give the Hilltoppers and advantage tonight, after he played his starters an average of 20 minutes against GW.

The Eagles started out with a defensive mindset, but it backfired and they caved in quickly.

“They did what a lot of teams in the district tired to do this season — pack it in with four or five defenders in the box trying to stop our three forwards,” McClurg said. “They were basically playing for a tie and trying to get something on a counterattack.”

Dupuy, Nikki Good and Carmen Glass each scored two goals to lead the scoring. Glass midfielders Jen Mawn and Genna Freeman each distributed two assists and surpassed the single-season assist record of 12 assists. Mawn now has 14 and Freeman 13.

Jake Link netted three goals to pace the boys’ attack, chasing down a through pass and beating William Fleming goalkeeper Abdu Abdullahi one-on-one inside the right post for the first goal eight minutes in.

“Jake came ready to play,” Turille said. “All my seniors did.”

Skyler Teel, one of only two underclassmen on the Hilltoppers’ 25-man roster, scored the second, off an assist from Link from deep in the box seven minutes later before Kevin Lang finished a rebound from near the top of the box for a 3-0 lead at the 22-minute mark.

“They played well,” Colonels coach Landon Moore said. “Give them credit. They’re a good team. They took it to us. We were very unorganized to start the game and once we got down two goals, we were a different team and just couldn’t recover.”

Teel injured his shin on a collision with Abdullahi going for a 50-50 ball near the right post off a deep free kick cross. He didn’t play the rest of the half while Abdullahi was taken out of the stadium by ambulance after possibly fracturing a rib on the play.

John Adams used technical precision and passionate pursuit of the goal to set up the final score, finished by basketball backcourt teammate Justin Henry at the 60-minute mark.

He dribbled through the defense toward the right end line before sending a crossing pass past Fleming backup goalkeeper Qua’sean Jones to Henry in front of an open net.

“I usually try to find Justin and it’s easy working with him, too, because he’s always there,” Adams said, noting the Hilltoppers played with a sense of purpose. “We came out with more intensity than we did the last two times we played them because it was either do or die tonight.”

“We’re on a mission,” Turille added. “We told the team we were 0-0 (in the postseason) before tonight and this is what we’ve been working for the past three months."

Glass’s girls host Patrick Henry on its turf field in tonight’s tournament final at 7 p.m., the same time the Hilltopper boys travel to Roanoke to face regular-season district champion PH, after losing twice to the Patriots this spring.

“Hopefully, they don’t sweep us,” Adams said.