George Mason High School’s boys soccer team keeps barrelling ahead winning eight straught after downing Rappahannock County High School and Clarke County High School.
Outside of a loss at an early season tournament and a tie a few days later, Mason (10-1-1) hasn’t hit any snags in the road since March. Part of it has been the always evident talent gap the Mustangs possess over their opponents. But the other part has been a strong sense of respect Mason holds for its competition as well; stamping out any potential upsets before they become a reality while also handling the occasional lopsided win like a package labeled “fragile,” as was the case against Rappahannock County.
“These are tricky games. We’ve tried to possess it against teams and the coach gets mad. Trying to [pull off] certain goals and the coach recognizes it and gets mad so we’ve tried different things in the past and it’s just something we feel out,” Mason head coach Frank Spinello said.
Rappahannock County was on the wrong end of a 24-0 loss to the Mustangs last April. But Mason’s appearance as a bully was actually egged on by the Panthers’ coach, who wanted his team to acclimate to harder competition in preparation for the Class 1 playoffs they entered at season’s end (Mason is a Class 2 team). The directive was repeated again for this year’s 13-0 win for the Mustangs because it paid dividends last year with Rappahannock County making it to the state finals.
Still, the disparity on the field was jarring. Junior midfielder Alex Kryazhev’s assist to freshman forward Yasin Shams for a goal in the first minute, followed by back-to-back assists from junior forward Zorhan Boston to Kryazhev in the seventh and 11th minutes set the tone early.
Shams tee’d up senior forward Nick Wells’ lone goal in the 13th minute before a brief break in the scoring was finally ended when junior midfielder Corwin Miller connected with freshman forward Ben Atkeson in the 23rd minute to bring Mason to 5-0. Atkeson then showed his brotherly love by assisting his twin freshman midfielder Will Atkeson four minutes later. Miller set up freshman forward A.J. Smith in the 35th minute preceded junior midfielder’s assist to Kryazhev to complete his hat trick before halftime.
Mason scored quickly to start the second half to go up 9-0. Sophomore midfielder Declan Quill fed Boston on consecutive shots to bump the Mustangs up to 11-0, then Miller tacked on another goal before Ben Atkeson finished off the 13-0 route.
Against Clarke County on Friday, Mason split its scoring between the two halves on its way to a 6-0 victory. Wells, Kryazhev and Smith each tallied a goal and an assist, with junior midfielder Hunter Broxson, Miller and Boston completing the scoring and senior forward Detsl Antezana, junior midfielder Henry Brorsen and Shams capping off the assists.
The Mustangs will hit the road to face Strasburg High School tomorrow night.
