Warhill rocks New Kent 5-1 in girls’ soccer home opener
New Kent's Natalie Ortiz (17) engages in a battle against Warhill's Lexey Armsdell (right).Robb Johnson photo
After a season opening road victory at Bruton, New Kent’s Lady Trojans soccer team looked to carry that momentum into Monday night’s contest against the visiting Warhill Lady Lions. Unfortunately for the hosts, the match will become a teaching tool for improvement.
Utilizing heavy ball pressure in the second half, Warhill eased its way to a 5-1 victory in the Bay Rivers District contest.
In the first half, New Kent kept Warhill in check, as defensive efforts by Ellie Hobson and stops by goalkeeper Hannah Milby assisted in keeping the game tied in the first half.
The visitors finally broke into the scoreboard with 35:27 showing on the clock Sarah Kuttkuhn found the back of the net. One minute later, Lady Lion Maggie Froehilch added a goal as Warhill stretched their lead to two (2-0). The third goal for the Lady Lions would come from Lilliana Osuna at the 22:48 mark, before additional goals from Olivia Holt and Sydney Crocetta pushed the visitors’ advantage to five (5-0).
New Kent finally broke into the scoring column, as a penalty kick by Emma Grant foiled the shutout. But the deficit was too much for the hosts to recover, sending them to their first defeat of the season.
After the match, Lady Trojan head coach Steven Grech spoke about his team’s second half downfall.
“Our fullback got beat the first time, and when they scored that goal, it kind of dropped the whole team down a little bit,” he commented. “When you get a goal scored like that, the team just drops.
“It looked like they put everything they had into the first half,” Grech continued. “In the second half all of their goals were not easy goals. They took shots and we didn’t take shots.”
The head coach did praise the efforts of his team.
“To stop a team like this who beat one of the top teams [Lafayette] like that in the first half was amazing and I was proud of them,” Grech said. “In the second half, we just had a lack of scoring.”