Trojans top Varina, 3-1

New Kent’s Cody Schweikert and Varina’s Noah Gillespie (16) wage a battle for the ball.

Alan Chamberlain photo

A pair of second half goals broke a 1-1 first half deadlock for New Kent as the host Trojans topped Varina’s Blue Devils 3-1 in non-district soccer.

The May 1 victory evened New Kent’s overall record at 6-6.

“We stepped it up defensively in the second half,” said Trojan coach Clinton Leckie, who watched his team break on top in the early going only to settle for a tie at the break.

Just under eight minutes into the match, the Trojans’ Gunner Gilland took a throw-in from Alec Bailey and hooked a perfect shot past Blue Devil keeper Calvin Coleman for a 1-0 lead. Ten minutes later, however, Varina’s Xavier Young centered the ball to teammate Robbie Fletcher who punched in an open shot for the tie.

Eleven minutes into the second half and with the Varina defense keying on Gilland, the Trojan co-captain looped a high pass over defenders from the left side of the Blue Devil goal.

Unnoticed by the defense, Tyler Brightwell raced into position to control the pass and hammer in the go-ahead goal.

With less than four minutes to go, Gilland provided an insurance score, beating Coleman on a penalty kick stemming from a pushing violation in the box on the Blue Devils’ Robert Evans.

Trojan keeper Jay Barbour registered five saves.

“This was better tonight than I thought it was going to be,” said Leckie. “I thought we’d be a little more tired after last night’s game. I wanted to use tonight’s game as a practice, but we wanted to win, too.”