Wildcats Win In 2 OT Cosgriff Converts Clincher, Giving Tomlin First Victory
Making an impressive comeback from a 4-2 deficit, the Rockbridge County High School boys soccer team earned a 5-4 road win in double overtime over Valley District rival East Rockingham on Monday of last week in Elkton.
The Wildcats lost 4-1 at district rival Turner Ashby on Tuesday of last week and ended the week with another district loss, falling 5-0 at home against Rocktown on Friday. RC concluded the week with an overall record of 2-4-0 and a district record of 1-3-0.
The win over East Rockingham (2-7-0 overall, 0-6-0 district) was RC’s first victory under new head coach Jeff Tomlin, who became the Wildcats’ head coach on March 31. The game took place over two Mondays, after it was stopped the previous Monday, April 14, with the Eagles leading 3-2 with 1:47 left in the first half. Oscar Kosky had scored the first goal for the Wildcats, and Noah Carroll scored the second goal.
After play resumed last Monday, ER scored to extend its lead to 4-2. However, the Wildcats answered back with two goals, one each from Charlie Cosgriff and Cooper Fox, to send the game into overtime.
Cosgriff, a sophomore midfielder moving up from the junior varsity team, scored the winning goal in the final two minutes of the second half.
Proud of his team’s performance, Tomlin said, “That was really exciting.”
Tomlin said he was “super pumped” by how his team responded after trailing. “We gradually just worked it back. I can say, the fight was there all the time. We absolutely fought back as a team. It was an absolute team effort from the back to the front, and, miraculously, we scored that overtime goal, and it was awesome.”
In addition to scoring, Carroll had an assist for the Wildcats, and Jonathan Roy also dished out an assist. Eliot McDonald was RC’s starting goalkeeper, and Jacob Wallace finished the game in goal.
TA 4, RC 1
The Wildcats suffered a 4-1 road loss to undefeated Turner Ashby (9-0-0, 6-0-0) on Tuesday of last week in Bridgewater.
Juan Rodriguez scored RC’s lone goal in the first 15 minutes of the game.
Playing in goal for the Wildcats, Wallace made eight saves.
Rocktown 5, RC 0
Rocktown dealt the Wildcats a 5-0 home loss on Friday night in Lexington. It was the first shutout loss of the season for RC In a game played partly in the rain, the athletic Raptors (6-1-1, 4-0-1) took a 1-0 lead when William Diz Aceituno scored about nine minutes into the game, and Rocktown went up 2-0 on a goal by Ethan Jenkins about five minutes later. Xander Blue scored on a header to give the Raptors a 3-0 halftime lead.
Blue got another goal early in the second half, and Rocktown’s Joshua Osei Irahete scored the final goal of the game on a header from a corner kick with 17 minutes left.
The Wildcats had trouble on offense throughout the game, facing double teams from the Raptors. McDonald played the entire game in goal for the Wildcats, making 11 saves.
“I think that we gave up some poor goals at times, and I think that’s a team problem, not just a defense problem,” said Tomlin. “I think our defense played outstanding at times tonight. I think that we just have a habit of starting games slowly.”
“I do think that this was some of the best soccer we played,” he added. “I think that we connected more than five, six passes at a time in the second half. We’ve just got to start that way. We’re right there, and I truly believe the team is capable of hanging with teams like Rocktown.”
The Wildcats were scheduled to play at Broadway last night and will continue district action at home tonight, Wednesday, against Harrisonburg before playing at Spotswood on Friday and then playing host to William Monroe on Tuesday. All nights are scheduled to start with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m., followed by varsity action at 7.
