Judges jubilant after shutout in district tourney

By Jeremy Stafford -- jstafford@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- Only in the postseason can there be a scene of such varying degrees of emotion.

On the one side, the Handley Judges girls soccer team was as jubilant as ever over their 2-0 win against Millbrook in a Northwestern District quarterfinals match. Many Handley players, like senior Angela Felicio, formed circles around a maroon Handley banner, waiting for their turn to cast their signature on it with a black marker.

"Everybody played really, we all pushed up as a team and worked well together," said Felicio, who along with the rest of the Judges will face second-seeded Sherando on Tuesday in a district semifinal.

On the other side of the field, the Pioneers were caught between the awkward decision of staying on the field for those final precious minutes of the night, or heading back to the locker room to change and officially end the season.

Seniors like midfielder Sydney Sams were especially gloomy, with tears welling in their eyes and spilling onto the turf of Sprint Field at Shentel Stadium in the realization that their careers are now over.

The loss was especially disheartening for Millbrook because it had watched as an early 2-7 record bloom into a 6-9-1 regular season, which included an overtime loss to the Judges on May 4.

"While it didn't end the way we wanted it to end, they turned the season around," Millbrook coach Keith Kilmer said. "We started the season not so good, and they turned the second half of the season into something that was a joy to be around."

But there was no hope for another overtime game at Sprint Field on Friday.

After several missed opportunities, the Judges finally scored in the 28th minute when forward Lillie Rupert charged at a through ball played to the top of the Millbrook 18-yard mark. Avoiding a defender, Rupert slid into the ball, which sailed into the top right corner of the goal.

Anne Cesnik scored nine minutes later, sending a rocket from the left side of the field off the hands of Millbrook keeper Mary Span. Cesnik admitted that when Span made contact with the ball, she thought it had been punched over the crossbar.

Instead, the ball plummeted down into the goal, giving Handley a two-score cushion.

But the Judges' scoring opportunities quickly diminished in the second half, as the Pioneers' defense began defending individual players rather than zones and spaces the way it had through the first half.

"It's not like we had a lot of balls that should have been goals," Handley coach Luke Mason said. "A lot of times we say we need to finish on opportunities -- we didn't create a lot of opportunities for ourselves.

"If we can double those opportunities, hopefully we can double the goals as well."

Cesnik said that ball movement was easy and fluid against the zone defense, and the Judges easily exploited it.

As the Millbrook defense played more aggressively and more passionately, more pressure was thrown onto the shoulders of the Handley defense to hold the lead.

Which isn't necessarily a simple task.

The Judges have recently switched from a formation of four midfielders and two forwards, to one of five midfielders and one forward, leaving Rupert as the lone attacker. Felicio said that although Handley is still adjusting to the formation, the extra midfielder vastly enhances the Judges' ball control and defense at midfield.

As such, the Pioneers rarely made runs down the flanks, and when they did manage a breakaway, it was soon funneled to the sideline and broken up.

Kilmer said his team's failure to attack was largely predicated on the inability of all 11 Pioneers to pressure the Judges as a unit.

"It just wasn't consistent attacks," Kilmer said. "The problem was they were few and far between. It just can't be like that, you have to take pressure off your side of the field and get it on theirs.

"We could do that for a moment, and then it was right back on us."