Strong defense bolsters girls' soccer
By Matt Pelkey
Head coach Dave Gillis has high hopes for Rappahannock's varsity girls' soccer team this season. The ladies believe in themselves, he said, and already have a chemistry, an energy, that will make them a more formidable force in the district.
Last Thursday the girls proved that they could step it up and put last year's 2-14 season behind them, holding the Warren County Wildcats, who ran roughshod over the Panthers a year ago, to a hard-earned 2-0 win.
"We're very pleased," coach Gillis said after the game -- the first of the season.
Led by new sweeper Elena Kritter and goalie Brittany Clatterbuck, the girls' defense shut down the Wildcats' onslaught time and again.
Kritter deflected shots from the middle and both sides, and fought through skirmishes within shooting range of the goal to clear the ball up to the midfielders and forwards.
And even with Kritter and the other defenders doing their best, Clatterbuck saw quite a bit of action in goal. She caught, punched or pushed out nearly two dozen strong shots, letting only two by.
Coach Gillis named Kritter, and Clatterbuck, as well as midfielder Megan Wheatley, players of the game.
While some individuals shone, as a team, the Panthers demonstrated cohesion. That could be chalked up to 15 returning players and a large number of juniors and seniors -- 14 on the 21-person roster.
Gillis said the Panthers now need to work on "finishing."
Before sending his players out onto the field against Warren, he told the girls to play a possession game -- he wanted them to keep the ball in their control and away from the other team. The defense did that, but the offense struggled.
"When we got up in the red zone -- the upper third (of the field) -- we stopped the possession game," Gillis said.
Most of the game was played on Rappahannock's side of the midfield line. When the Panther defense sent the ball up to the forwards, the runs to the goal were quickly cut short by a pass missing its mark and rolling out of bounds or a Wildcat defender's foot.
The closest the Panthers came to a goal was a penalty shot from inside the box, though that was deflected and kicked away.
But overall Gillis is optimistic.
"We're going to give it a go," he said.
The girls' next game will be held away on March 20, again against Warren County.
E-mail the reporter at mpelkey@timespapers.com.