In a challenging Shenandoah District game, the Rockbridge County High School girls soccer team suffered a 9-1 home loss to Stuarts Draft on Thursday night in Lexington.
With the setback, the Wildcats fell to 0-4, both overall and in the district, while Draft got its first win and improved to 1-0-2.
The Cougars were aggressive from the start and kept the ball in their offense for the vast majority of the game. Draft’s Kendall Clark scored the first goal just under five minutes in, and teammate Ellie Weatherholtz put in another goal about five minutes later. The Cougars kept attacking, building up a 6-0 lead by halftime.
RC junior goalkeeper Caden Marshall, who was battling a knee injury that made it difficult to dive to her left, made 12 saves in the game, stopping three shots in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Draft’s Angela Hibshman then scored about 11 minutes into the half to extend the Cougars’ lead to 7-0.
The Wildcats prevented the shutout when Allison Licona-Asto got the ball to Lucy Boller-Pinkham, who fired a long shot Draft goalkeeper Morgan Beauford’s right side that went into the opposite corner of the net, cutting the Cougars’ lead to 7-1 with 11:20 left.
Draft responded with a goal several minutes later and scored again to end the game due to the eight-goal mercy rule with 4:10 left in regulation.
The Wildcats will continue district action when they play at Buffalo Gap on Monday, with the varsity game only at 7 p.m.
For the full story and photos from this week’s action, please see our April 8 newspaper.
