The James River girls and boys saw their soccer seasons come to an end in the past week in the Region 2C soccer tournaments.
The girls lost an opening round at Appomattox, 5-2. River scored first when Kayla Myers assisted Alise Orent, but the host Raiders answered with two goals before the half and led 2-1 at intermission.
In the second half, Lyndsey Lawson of Appomattox scored her third goal of the night to give the Raiders a 3-1 lead before Natalie Hughes of River cut the lead to 3-2. Lawson’s fourth goal gave the home team some breathing room and they finished strong to take a 5-2 win. Kylee Aaron had nine saves for the Knights.
“It was not our best year, but any year we get to play is still pretty good,” said coach Bill Smith. “I am already looking forward to next season.”
The boys won their region opener against Nelson County, 5-1, in Springwood.
“We came out strong and finished strong,” said coach Jared Whiting. “For 80 minutes we played as a single unit, moved the ball very well, attacked from different positions and out worked Nelson going to the ball. Overall, it may have been our best showing as a whole.”
On Friday the Knights were at undefeated Glenvar and that didn’t go as well. River battled the Highlanders to a scoreless first half, but Glenvar scored six unanswered goals after intermission. The loss was the third of the season to the Highlanders.
“Hats off to Glenvar,” said Whiting. “They are a very solid team. We kept it tight until halftime, then our mental game fell apart and it was down hill from there.
“Looking back over our season I have to say I am really impressed with how these guys developed and improved. Definitely a hard working group and just a fun team to be on the field with. We saw some great soccer out of them and couldn’t be more proud of them. We came up short in the playoffs but still had a great season.”
