Cavs are Kings o' Seminole soccer

  So, you thought that this might be the year that Jefferson Forest vacated its boys soccer crown?

Mike Forster

Jefferson Forest’s Douglas Dickerson (white jersey) finds his way blocked by a sliding Marco Bustamante, of Heritage, during the Cavs’ 7-0 win over the Pioneers.

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Will you never learn?

The lads in black and red will be hanging another pennant, courtesy of their Seminole District championship.  It is the Cavaliers’ 19th straight Seminole crown.  

Here’s something to mull over:  There is not a player on the current team who was on this earth the last time JF failed to take the Seminole title.  

The men in black secured their title with wins over Heritage and Amherst last week.  All that remains between them and an undefeated run through the Seminole is Brookville, which JF hosts today, Wednesday.

The Cavs tended to business in typical Cav fashion.  They topped Heritage, 7-0, before easing by Amherst, 6-0.  Then, to put a cherry on the week’s sundae, they dismantled a highly regarded crew from Charlottesville, 6-0.

The win over Heritage showed just what the Cavs can do.  Twice, the team showed its “extra gear” in putting together multiple-goal scoring spurts.

Twelve minutes into the match, JF led 3-0.  Things got cooking with (yet another) mad dash down the left sideline by Tyler Bullock.  He finished off the run with a chip pass to Matthew Crider, who netted the goal.

One minute later, the always-dangerous Devin Jones took advantage of a scramble in the Heritage box to find a loose ball, which he delivered safely home.

The trio of scoring was completed when secret weapon Nick Shortridge boomed a clearing pass, which Bullock ran under to one-time into the netting with his left foot.

Just like that, the barrage stopped.  Forest seemed content to work on its passing as the final 28 minutes of the half ticked away.

The Cavs knocked off the dust in the second half.  Defensive ace Bryan Zaring sent a long feed to the speedy Bullock, who converted for a 4-0 lead.

Three minutes later, Bullock went on a ride through the gut of the Pioneer defense before passing off to Michael Sciarrino, who finished off the goal.

Then, Zaring danced end-to-end, leaving dazed ‘Neers in his wake.  Zaring came nose-to-nose with keeper BJ Johnson before dishing off to Sciarrino for the tap-in.

Ben Jackson added a header to finish off the scoring for the night.

Minutemen pick up first Seminole win

Liberty, which has been a hard-luck team all season, had a break-out performance in beating Rustburg, 2-1.

The win was the first in district play for the Minutemen.

Perhaps, even better, the victory avenged an early-season loss to the Red Devils in which Rustburg capitalized on a pair of penalty kicks, one with mere seconds remaining.

This time, the M-Men would not be denied.  In an invigorating sequence, Cody Sellers and Coty Bartholomew teamed up to draw first blood.

It all happened about midway through the first half.  Sellers, the Liberty goal keeper, made a stupendous save on a one-on-one situation.  He cleared, but the ball came back to him.

Sellers’ subsequent punt cleared the midstripe, where Bartholomew pounced on it.  He scooted through the residual Rusty defense before driving home the tally.  By the way, it isn’t often that your keeper picks up an assist.

The insurance goal was provided by Trey Padgett.  In a different turn of events, Liberty was awarded a penalty kick when Corey Agee was dragged down in the box.

Padgett. a team captain, drilled the charity shot to his right side to make it a 2-0 Liberty lead.

Rustburg scored in the final two minutes to give the Liberty faithful pause.  But this one was going Liberty’s way

At the end of the match, the Liberty players fell in heaps.  It wasn’t clear whether they were drained from the emotion of finally getting the monkey off of their collective back or from sheer exhaustion.  Of Head Coach Nick Bartholomew’s 11 starters, eight played the entire 80 minutes.

“We know we’ve been playing well enough to win,” said Coach Bartholomew.  “The guys just played a great game.”

One player of note was Tristen Harrison, who played a gem of a defensive game.  Bartholomew assigned Harrison the unenviable task of covering Rustburg scoring ace Chris Skarpenes.

Harrison stuck like glue to the Norwegian transfer, denying him even one shot for the evening. 

Well played, Sir.