Victory Leads to a Big Opportunity for Stone Bridge

By B.J. Koubaroulis

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The shouts erupted on the Stone Bridge girls’ soccer team’s bus as Coach Rae Ann Taylor announced that Tuesday’s 2-1 Virginia AAA Northern Region tournament first-round victory at West Springfield would send the Bulldogs against Centreville today.

The fifth-ranked Bulldogs (12-4) probably will enter the game with something to prove.

Centreville (6-7-2) has won the past two region championships and four of the past five Concorde District titles. Stone Bridge, meantime, is looking to make amends following a 2-0 loss to Madison in the Liberty District tournament last week.

“Clearly, my team wants to play Centreville,” Taylor said. “I was disappointed with our performance in the district playoffs, but sometimes things happen for a reason.”

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Stone Bridge's No. 3 Kristina Rodriguez and West Springfield's No. 22 Danielle O'Brien go for the ball in the first half. (Joel Richardson)

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Stone Bridge's No. 17 Maggie Scheirling gets the header in front of West Springfield's No. 2 Sarah Leonard in the first half. (Joel Richardson)

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Stone Bridge's No. 3 Kristina Rodriguez races down the left side with West Springfield's No. 22 Danielle O'Brien to score the winning goal in the second half. (Joel Richardson)

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Stone Bridge's No. 3 Kristina Rodriguez gets hugs from No. 14 Megan McCabe and No. 10 Abigail Apistolas. (Joel Richardson)

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Stone Bridge's No. 3 Kristina Rodriguez gets hugs from No. 14 Megan McCabe and No. 10 Abigail Apistolas after her goal. (Joel Richardson)

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Stone Bridge and seventh-ranked West Springfield (12-3-2) each spent much of the season ranked among the top three in The Washington Post’s top 10, and each was considered a state title contender.

Last week’s district tournaments — the loss by Stone Bridge and West Springfield’s Patriot District championship triumph over No. 2 South County in overtime — forced Tuesday’s first-round game to be played between the two powers.

The Bulldogs had lost to West Springfield, 3-2, in the season opener.

The outcome was different on Tuesday after a winning goal by All-Met forward Krysti Rodriguez, who has committed to play for Hofstra. Rodriguez scored the winner in the 68th minute after she won a one-on-one race up the sideline and slipped a slow rolling 20-yard shot inside the right goalpost.

“After the loss to Madison, we came out the next three days with extremely hard practices,” Rodriguez said. “When we get everyone up to play and when we get pumped, we’re on fire. I just hope we come out on fire Thursday.”

The Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute.

Sophomore Maggie Sheirling’s right-footed shot following Rodriguez’s flick-pass inside the penalty box sliced high, but it allowed senior midfielder Abigail Apistolas to finish with a well-timed right-footed 20-yarder.

“It came across and it kind of nicked off a girl’s shoulder and it was open, it was lucky, or it wasn’t lucky, but I was in the right place at the right time,” Apistolas said. “It feels good because we’ve been playing well, but we just haven’t been pumped up.”

West Springfield sophomore midfielder Tina Rader scored her first goal of the season to tie the game in the 37th minute. Rader had been called up from junior varsity with two games left in the regular season.

Other than her goal, however, the Spartans didn’t find a way past Stone Bridge defenders Melony Davis, Emily Fredrikson, Lindsay Henry and Kelly Malacarne.

They protected freshman goalkeeper Blaire Brady (six saves) and helped limit West Springfield to three shots in the first half.

West Springfield’s attack pressured throughout the second half, creating more opportunities by feeding sophomore midfielder Amalya Clayton and senior midfielder Brittany Klippstein, but Rodriguez capitalized on the Bulldogs’ only scoring chance of the second half.

“It was a lot of pressure, with the game being tied 1-1, I knew I needed to score,” Rodriguez said.

Tagged: soccer, Stone Bridge High School

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