Evans, Broad Run One Win From Goal

By Matt Brooks (Contact)

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Kelly Evans cut through the middle of Hidden Valley’s back line, dribbled to the right side of the box and struck a right-footed shot toward the net.

The angle was awkward, but the bending ball had just enough lift to arch over the outstretched arms of Titans senior goalkeeper Erika Troia and into the back of the net to give Broad Run the lead only 15 seconds into the Spartans’ Virginia AA girls’ soccer semifinal game at Radford University.

Fueled by a dominant first half from their junior forward at the top of their attack, the Spartans led at the break and pulled away in the second half for a 4-1 victory. The win kept Broad Run undefeated and put it just one win away from its first state title since 2001.

“It was kind of a lucky goal,” Broad Run Coach Claire Collins said of Evans’s tally. “She really had no angle on it, but somehow it went in. That’s just how good Kelly Evans is.”

Hidden Valley (19-2) struck right back, however, as junior forward Maddy Elder’s low cross from the left side found a cutting Kendall Robertson, who beat Caitlin Hunter to tie the score at 1 just two minutes after Evans’s opener.

“That hurt us a little bit,” Evans said. “We had our heads down, but we didn’t give up. We knew this was our game and we were going to walk away with the win.”

Five minutes before the half, Broad Run (24-0) got its second goal, and again it was by Evans. Whitney Church crossed a corner kick into the box, where junior midfielder Holly King got her head on it, but couldn’t put the ball on net. Instead it fell at the feet of Evans, who turned quickly and slid the ball into the right corner of the net to give the Spartans a 2-1 lead heading into the break.

Broad Run got some insurance in the second half, adding goals on one-on-one breakaways from senior forwards Kelly Smith and Carina Chavez. The Spartans will try to complete a perfect season in Saturday’s final against Courtland — the team that knocked them out of last year’s state tournament in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinal round.

“This team has been ready since day one,” Collins said. “They’ve had some unfinished business since losing to Courtland last year, so what sweet justice to be able to play them again tomorrow in the final.”

In the first semifinal, Courtland scored three second-half goals to overcome a 1-0 halftime deficit and defeat Salem, 3-1.

Salem (12-5) got on the board five minutes before the halftime whistle when Megan Kennedy’s shot took a deflection off a Courtland player and found its way into the back of the net.

Fifteen minutes after the break, the Cougars (11-3) equalized when Crystal Salazar’s long ball over the top of the defense found a streaking Kara Blosser. The junior forward broke through the defense and put a right-footed shot past Salem freshman goalkeeper Bre Kawa to even the score at 1.

Later in the half, the Cougars took the lead on freshman Heather Schnake’s strike off a Lauren McCoy assist. Ten minutes later, Blosser put the game out of reach with a perfectly placed penalty kick into the low right corner.

Courtland was state runner-up in 2005 and again last year, when it lost, 2-0, to Riverbend in the title game.

Tagged: soccer

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