Northside upsets Forest in Region III soccer

By Ted Allen

Published: May 29, 2008

VINTON — Facing Blue Ridge District regular-season champion Northside, a team it beat 6-0 in the 2006 Region III semifinals and 3-0 in a preseason scrimmage, Jefferson Forest’s boys soccer team was the prohibitive favorite in Thursday’s Region III rematch.
“We were definitely the underdogs,” said Vikings senior goalkeeper Adam Muncy, the Blue Ridge District player of the year.
The Cavaliers (17-3) didn’t take Northside lightly, with their season on the line. But playing on William Byrd’s narrow field, they couldn’t use their technical skills to their advantage or get into their usual ball control offense and suffered a 1-0 semifinal loss to the Vikings (10-5-3).
“Their style was really direct so (the field) definitely helped them,” JF sophomore John Henry Ostrowski said. “We just tried to calm it down and play possession soccer.”
However, they had trouble settling into an offensive rhythm.
“We were struggling the whole day,” JF coach Jedd Zaring said. “It seemed like every time DJ (David Jackson) or Timmy (Bullock) had the ball at their feet, it was not at their feet after a touch. It was up in the air and bounced away. It didn’t look like they had the confidence in their touch. Unfortunately, you can’t do that this time of year. You’ve got to find a way to battle through it and we didn’t, so we’re going home. I have to say I’m in a little bit of disbelief right now, thinking that we lost that game.”
As the clock wound down in the second half, Forest started to press and couldn’t put the combinations it needed together through Northside’s stacked defense.
“They tended to drop and defend,” Ostrowski said. “We still had our chances and tried to finish, but just couldn’t do it. It’s upsetting, but it happens sometimes.”
“They played hard and did exactly what they had to do, defend their lead,” JF defender Kyle Wachenheim added.
The Vikings advance to today’s Region III final against Turner Ashby, a 1-0 winner over Lord Botetourt in Thursday’s second semifinal, and earn a Group AA state tournament bid.
“That is phenomenal for us, a very good win,” Northside coach Jody Draper said. “We don’t have the technical skill that Jefferson Forest and Blacksburg have. We just have to be physical and play with a lot of heart and give it all we’ve got.”
Senior defender Aaron Darby scored the Vikings’ only goal, toeing in a corner kick cross from Jordan Rose on the goal line two and a half minutes before halftime. Freshman forward Ryan Palmieri set up the corner kick by dribbling from the right wing and shooting toward the far post, saved out of bounds by Forest diving goalkeeper Scott Zaring.
“They came out hard and kind of knocked us around,” Jedd Zaring said.
“We just never responded to the faster tempo.”
Midway through the second half, Palmieri out-ran Wachenheim to a long through ball and blasted a shot off the center of the crossbar. Moments later, after Palmieri dribbled toward the left end line and fired a shot saved by Zaring at the left post, Forest midfielder David Rochow watched his shot from the top right of the box strike off the upper left crossbar with 15 minutes to play.
In the final five minutes, the Cavaliers had a couple quality scoring opportunities slip away or snuffed by Muncy. Andrew Dempsey took a pass from Ostrowski and drilled a shot from the left wing just wide of the right post. After Ostrowski was tripped up in the box with no foul called, Bullock sent a free kick in to Dempsey, whose header deflection toward the left post was saved brilliantly by a diving Muncy out of bounds, giving Forest a corner kick.
“Their goalie’s amazing, I have to give it to him,” JF senior defender Jordan Smith said. “It really was a great game by him.”
“My defenders came through for me,” Muncy added. “They made some huge stops for me before (the Cavaliers) even got shots off.”
Jackson and Ostrowski had two open looks from the far side off the final corner kick, but couldn’t put a shot on goal.
“DJ with the ball at his feet 12 yards off the goal line, that’s a goal, normally,” Jedd Zaring said.
“We played hard and had a lot of opportunities, but it just didn’t happen,” Wachenheim added. “They just put one in and we didn’t. We all had a lot of high hopes and played with a lot of heart (but) things didn’t go our way.”