The Lord Botetourt boys swept the soccer season series with James River when the Cavaliers took a 4-0 win over the Knights in Daleville last week.

Trey Rice scored two goals for LB, while Mason Rich and Kyle Wood had one each.

“We played terrible, the worst we’ve played in a long time and we as a team know it,” said River coach Jared Whiting. “LB has a talented team, but a team we can play with when we play at the level we’re capable of. We just came off a great game with Alleghany and two great practices, then fell apart. We just didn’t show up to play for some reason.”

The win kept LB undefeated to that point at 6-1-2 with a much-anticipated match at Northside on Friday. Last season the Cavaliers were victorious in the conference championship game after losing both regular season games to the Vikings, so Northside was hoping to extract some revenge. They got it with a 2-1 win in a hard-fought game.

“We knew going into this game that we have an extremely talented team,” said LB coach Tim Wright. “We also knew that Northside was a very strong team with a strong attacking line-up led by their powerhouse forward.”

The Cavaliers were first on the board in the opening minutes of play as Rice capitalized off of an outside shot.  The Vikings were able to tie the score at 1-1, and in the final six minutes of play their backline player stepped to a ball that had popped out and connected for what proved to be the winning goal.

“The first loss of the season definitely stung, but overall I was impressed with our match-up,” said Wright. “Both teams competed, both teams made mistakes, unfortunately the cards just fell their way this time. I am looking forward to dissecting this film with the team in hopes of fixing what needs to be fixed for the next time we see them.”

LB was scheduled to play host to William Byrd on Tuesday of this week but that match was rained out and rescheduled for May 9. LB is at William Fleming Friday.

James River bounced back with a 6-3 win at Floyd County on Thursday of last week. Jacob Wagner had four goals for the Knights, while Jacob Hill had two. River Clonch and Dalton Simmons had two assists each and Tristan Floyd had one.

“You could see, even during warm ups, that they were not about to have a game like the previous one where we fell apart,” said Whiting. “The guys were focused and driven and settled back into technical play and it quickly paid off. We had great movement off the ball, creating constant options and used those options wisely. Tonight was a big step back in the right direction of quality soccer.”

The Knights are scheduled to have a home match against Glenvar tonight, weather permitting. The two Three Rivers District rivals are scheduled to meet again next Monday, April 30, at Glenvar.