By Missy Schrott | mschrott@alextimes.com
The T.C. Williams varsity girls’ soccer team is two games away from a perfect season.
After a 3-2 win over Chantilly High School in the Virginia High School League quarterfinals on Tuesday, the team will carry its 21-0 record to Glen Allen, Virginia for the state semifinals Friday.
Throughout the entire season, which began in early March, the team has scored 111 goals and given up only seven, according to Liz Blount, one of the team’s associate head coaches. Blount shares the role with Ally Hodgkins Wagner.
“We’ve only been scored on three times on our home field,” Blount said. “We just have really good leadership. Teamwork is unbelievable. Nobody’s selfish and everybody plays for each other. It’s just a really good group of girls who work well together and want to get it done. It makes Ally and my jobs very easy.”
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After winning district finals 6-0 against Hayfield Secondary School on May 17 and region finals 1-0 against South County High School on May 31, the quarterfinal state game against Chantilly was one of the team’s toughest games of the season. It was the only game in which they’ve given up more than one goal.
“We told the girls the smarter team was going to win this game because everybody’s good at this point. It’s the state quarterfinal game,” Blount said.
The teams took turns scoring throughout the game, before the Titans locked down the 3-2 victory with a free kick 20 yards out with about four minutes left on the clock, Blount said.
“The girls were pumped, to say the least, and they held [Chantilly],” Blount said.
Looking to the rest of the state tournament, Blount said her mantra is going to be, “Just keep it going.”
“These girls are really resilient,” Blount said. “When we got scored on [during the quarterfinals], they didn’t shut down. They said, ‘Let’s go,’ and they rose to the occasion, and they’ve been doing that all season. They don’t want to disappoint each other, and so they just keep working. They dig deep and they find a way.”
The team takes on James River High School from Midlothian, Virginia at Deep Run High School in Glen Allen tomorrow at noon.
The winner of that game will take on the winner of the Yorktown High School vs. Floyd Kellam High School semifinal game in the state championship Saturday at 3 p.m. See alextimes.com for updates on the Titans’ performance in the state semifinals.
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