By Drew Costley
George Mason High School’s girls varsity soccer team beat Stuarts Draft High School 2-0 to win its sixth straight Region B championship last Friday. The Mustangs beat Appomattox County High School 7-0 in the semifinals last Wednesday to make it to the championship round.
In the 10th minute against Appomattox, senior midfielder Maggie Mascarenhas was ejected from the game after committing a foul the referees interpreted as a blatant attempt to stop a goal-scoring opportunity. Mascarenhas was attempting to catch up to an Appomattox player who had gotten free on a fast break and slide-tackled the player in order to stop the run. As a result, the Mustangs played with nine players instead of 10 for most of the match.
“As a senior you’re going to go into a tackle hard when it might your last game of your career,” Head Coach Jennifer Parsons said. “I think she was just trying to do her job.”
Parsons said Mascarenhas getting ejected motivated her teammates, who had been playing slowly up to that point.
Freshman midfielder/forward Corinne Carson scored the Mustangs’ first goal off of a pass from sophomore midfielder Jessica Gemond in the 21st minute. Junior midfielder Camille Rice scored the Mustangs’ second goal in the 29th minute off of a pass from junior midfielder/forward Claire Trevisan. Rice returned the favor in the 34th minute with a pass to Trevisan, who netted the Mustangs’ third goal. Late in the first half, sophomore forward Ava Roth scored three more goals. Senior defender Hailey Thomas assisted one of the goals in the 35th minute and freshman midfielder/forward Ella Howard assisted one in the 40th. The Mustangs were ahead 6-0 at halftime. Rice, who was sidelined for much of the season with a knee injury, scored the Mustangs’ final goal in the 53rd minute off of a corner kick.
Freshman forward Kate Mills kicked off the scoring for the Mustangs in the regional championship off of a cross from Roth. The score was 1-0 at halftime. The Mustangs’ next goal didn’t come until the 70th minute, when Thomas scored on a free kick.
Parsons said that “it was great” to win the regional championship after losing the Bull Run District championship the week before to Clarke County High School, a team which was eliminated by Stuarts Draft in the Region B semifinals.
“I think them seeing that their rivals Clarke getting knocked out earlier that week by [Stuarts Draft], they knew that they were going into a competitive game,” Parsons said. “I think it was good for the girls to have a tough, close-scoring game when they had bigger margins [of victory] earlier in the week.”
The Mustangs had a huge margin of victory on Tuesday in the opening round of the state championships with a 10-0 win over King William High School. After dominating possession without scoring in the first seven minutes, the Mustangs scored a flurry of goals in the seven minutes that followed.
Roth scored the Mustangs’ first goal in the 8th minute. Thomas scored the Mustangs’ second goal in the 10th minute, then Roth scored her second and the team’s third goal in the 12th. A Cavaliers’ defender caused an own goal in the 14th minute, then Rice scored her first goal in the 24th minute after getting a pass from Thomas and then scored again in the 30th minute off of a pass from Carson. The score was 6-0 at halftime.
Mascarenhas scored the Mustangs’ seventh goal in the 49th minute. Carson scored the Mustangs’ eighth goal of the game in the 56th minute. Rice completed her hat trick in the 70th minute by scoring the Mustangs’ ninth goal. Howard scored the Mustangs’ final goal of the game in the 78th minute after receiving a crossing pass from Mills.
The Mustangs head to Radford University Friday for a state semifinal match against Radford High School. If the Mustangs beat the Bobcats, they’ll face either James River High School or Stuarts Draft in the state championship on Saturday.
