Judges capture district title - Sports

WINCHESTER — Following their 3-0 win over Warren County on Friday, members of Handley's boys soccer team huddled together in front of fans and celebrated their potentially historic victory.

With the win, the Judges maintained their perfect record, and with one game left to play, coach Cosmo Balio says he hopes his team can do something no other has done in school history: go undefeated.

"There hasn't been an undefeated regular season champ in Handley history, and that's kind of a goal on our list," Balio said.

But although Handley wants to finish the season unblemished, the Judges played with the postseason in mind, frequently rotating through subs and increasing the playing time of the team's role players.

"We're just seeing if we can get some more game experience for the guys," Balio said.

The beginning of the game didn't go as well as the Judges expected, and although they outshot the Wildcats 11-4 in the first half and dominated ball possession, they could only muster a 1-0 lead going into the second half.

"It was frustrating at times to watch," Balio said. "[Warren County] played a great game where they were able to knock it around in the back against us, and we just weren't stepping forward."

Handley had several opportunities to score in the opening minutes of the game, but was frustrated by the great play of Warren County goalie Blake Sparling, who had nine saves in the game.

"He's extremely capable," Warren County coach Gali Sanchez said. "He's a young man who has switched in our JV program between goal and field. He's put in a tremendous amount of effort, and he's come up big for us in a number of games."

Handley senior Spencer Burkholder was stymied the most by Sparling, who saved two of Burkholder's shots, and broke up several scoring opportunities that Burkholder created.

"I'm more quick to get frustrated than others," Burkholder said. "But Matt [Brannon] keeps my head in it and Kyle [Pryde] keeps my head in it, and we work through it, and we eventually find the back of the net and that's what matters."

Handley finally scored with 18:21 remaining in the first half, when Randolph Boppe beat out the Wildcat defense and scored from five feet outside of the goal.

"Boppe finally got back on track today," Balio said. "[He's} kind of been frustrated with his ability to put a ball in the net. He's created opportunities, but hasn't been able to finish."

The Wildcats threatened the Judges' lead several times in the second half, despite managing only three shots on goal, including a strong header from forward Jeff Moxie that sailed into the hands of Pryde.

Burkholder gave the Judges some breathing room, though, when he dove for a low cross from Boppe and headed the ball into the goal.

"It wasn't so much [a relief] because I finally put the ball in the back of the net — even though I haven't been finding the net lately — but a 2-0 lead just means so much more than a 1-0 lead," Burkholder said.

Handley scored again when Brannon found the net with 2:40 remaining in the game, capping the scoring.

The Judges finish their regular season at Central on Tuesday, and are looking forward to playing for a chance a history.

"All these kids have grown up wanting to play for this team," Balio said. "We've got one more game to do it, and we're going to give everything we've got to put our fingerprint on the history here at Handley."

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