The Blue Ridge District boys’ soccer tournament will have semifinals tonight at Northside and finals at William Byrd High Friday at 7 p.m.
Lord Botetourt opened the tournament on Tuesday with a game at home against Staunton River. If the Cavaliers prevailed they’ll play top seeded Northside tonight at Northside at 5:30 p.m., followed by William Byrd against William Fleming at 7:30 p.m.
Northside is the top seed and LB, Byrd and Fleming all tied for second with 4-4 records. With tie-breakers, Fleming ended up as the second seed with Byrd third and LB fourth.
The Cavaliers were cruising along in second but ended the regular season with a 2-0 loss to Byrd and a 2-1 loss to Fleming to drop into the three-way tie. Coach Tim Wright is hoping to turn things around for the district and regional tournaments in the coming weeks. LB finished the regular season with a 12-4 record.
“We did not finish the regular season how we started,” said Wright. “We made changes in our line-up. Our district losses to Fleming, Northside and Byrd exposed a major defensive problem; a goal does not result from a single event but instead from a process. Last week’s practice allowed us to focus on that process and adopt a mindset to eliminate opportunities for opposing teams to set up opportunities to capitalize on that defensive weakness.”
LB will be the third seed when the regional tournament begins on May 23.
