Recap
Blacksburg won the Conference 32 Tournament Title and the #1 seed in Region play with a 2-0 win over Cave Spring. Ashlen Burch scored the game winner on an assist from Catie Walters in the 9th minute. In the second half Catie Walters scored on an assist from Ali Palmer (72nd Min).
- Chris Martin recorded 3 saves while the CS goal keeper made 6 saves. Blacksburg had 13 shots compared to Cs’s 4 shots. Blacksburg had 4 corner kicks to 1 for CS.
Quoted from the Roanoke Times.
Blacksburg soccer captures 2 conference titles, Christian Moody
Special Thanks to The Roanoke TimesBLACKSBURG — By virtue of a 2-0 win over Cave Spring in Friday’s Conference 32 championship game, the Blacksburg girls soccer team is unbeaten in 60 straight matches dating to 2013. The win gave the Bruins a sweep of the conference championships with the boys team downing Christiansburg 2-1 in its final. No other school has ever won a Conference 32 soccer tournament or regular season championship.
Blacksburg 2, Cave Spring 0. The 60-game unbeaten streak is a state record for girls soccer. If that streak continues through the end of the season, the Bruins will claim their third consecutive state championship. Powering this unprecedented effort is a defense that has allowed two goals all season. Those goals came on penalty kicks, so the Blacksburg defense has not surrendered a goal during live ball play. Goalkeeper Chris Martin made four saves Friday. Offensively the Bruins (15-0-2) are good enough, which was the case Friday. “We haven’t scored a ton of goals this season,” Blacksburg coach Travis Eschenmann said. “We’re more possession oriented. We score one or two and play great defense. We seem to find opportunities when we need them.”
The opportunities were hard to find against the Knights defense. The Bruins broke through in the ninth minute when sophomore Ashlen Burch sent a rocket into the left side of the net from 20 yards. “She’s one of those kids who can strike a ball from distance,” Eschenmann said. “She doesn’t need to be inside [the 18-yard line]. When she gets ahold of a ball, it has pace.” The Knights defense held solid for the next 62 minutes, getting five saves from goalkeeper McKinley Pollard. With less than nine minutes to play, Catie Walters provided the Bruins an insurance goal by chesting the ball to the ground in the open 15 yards in front of the goal. She then buried the ball inside the left post. The Knights (10-6-2) got four shots on goal, but could not mount offensive pressure in the final 20 minutes. “It was a very even game,” Cave Spring coach Whitney Huffman said. “The first half, they started stronger, then we picked it up. In the last 20, we just couldn’t find it.” The Group 3A regional will see Blacksburg at home Monday to face the winner of Saturday’s Rustburg-Turner Ashby match. Cave Spring travels to Liberty on Monday.