By Kevin Johnson -- Daily Sports Correspondent

FRONT ROYAL — The Handley Judges came out aggressive and were clearly the quicker team on a muddy field, working through the unfriendly surface for a 4-1 win over Warren County in Northwestern District girls soccer on Friday.

Despite a 6-0 loss to the Judges earlier in the season, the Wildcats made it look like a close contest early on, trading time on each other's end of the field.

"We came out strong from the start," Warren County coach Mike Carpenter. "It was the first time everyone's been healthy and I think the girls just had fun playing on the muddy field."

"We have a good, talented team," Handley coach Luke Mason said. "But when you're going up against a team who's giving everything they've got, it's anybody's game."

As the first half progressed, it became evident that Handley was going to camp out at Warren County's goal. The Judges held a 14-5 edge on shots in the first half.

Handley rang up the first goal of the night with just over 24 minutes remaining on a pretty cross from midfielder Lillie Rupert to Kirsti Campbell, who knocked the ball into the left side of the goal through a crowd of players that appeared to block goalkeeper Maya Richards' view of the ball.

"Lillie worked hard to get it and played it perfectly to me," Campbell said. "Six inches to the left and the defender would have had it, but she played it right so all I had to do was hit it."

Two minutes later, the Wildcats answered on a free kick by Hannah Oakes from 25 yards out that found an open Karson Scates waiting in front of the goal to punch it in.

The goal energized the Wildcats for the remainder of the half, but the aggressive Judges continued to hassle the Wildcats.

Rupert barely missed chalking up a goal at the 18:45 mark with a hard line-drive shot from 15 yards out that was snagged by Richards on a diving save.

Just 20 seconds later, Rupert and Richards collided going for a ball, and Richards remained down, halting play.

"I just saw that we both had an equal chance to get it, so I went for it," Rupert said.

Richards shook off the injury and spent the rest of the half dodging bullets from the Judges, including two consecutive shots off the crossbar by Ciara Hockman and Lauren Delmerico.

Rupert broke the stalemate before the half was out, sprinting past her defender to take in a pass over the defense by Hockman, and knocking the shot into the goal off the left post, giving the Judges a 2-1 halftime advantage.

"Ciara sent it in and I had a step on the defender and finished," Rupert said.

In the second half, the Judges took over the game, playing the majority of the period on Warren County's half of the field, while the Wildcats removed a banged-up Richards in favor of Nicole Bird.

Delmerico extended the Judges' lead to 3-1 on a shot crossing in front of Bird that found the left of the goal.

"I was dribbling and saw a clearance by my defender and saw the corner of the goal and shot it," Delmerico said.

Handley closed out the scoring for the game on an Alison MacDonald goal off a corner kick with two minutes remaining to provide the final 4-1 margin.

Warren County senior captains Meghan Groos and Heather McCullough both felt much better about the team's performance the second time around.

"It's a step up from the last game," McCollough said.

"Yeah, I think we played better as a team this time," Groos added. "It felt good to score on them after they shut us out last time. So it was a good pick-me-up."

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