The James River boys won two close soccer games last week but couldn’t get by Radford in a Three Rivers District game in Radford Monday night. The host Bobcats took a 5-2 win over the Knights.
“Tough night for us,” said River coach Jared Whiting. “Not exactly sure what went wrong or if just everything did, maybe five consecutive road games. I don’t know but I do know we did not play to our ability for sure.”
Justin Hill and Craig Bowyer scored for the Knights.
“Seems like we have that one game a season that we wish we could do over and this one was it,” said Whiting. “I’m confident we will recover and get back to our game. These guys give incredible effort and will be ready for the next game.”
Last week River won two close ones on the road, topping Rockbridge, 2-1, and Carroll County, 3-2.
Bowyer had both goals against the Wildcats, both assisted by Hill. Landon Tolley played a strong game in goal.
“We owned midfield most of the night and were strong in the final third,” said Whiting. “Our defense kept them out of the our box all night. It was a high energy game for sure.”
Against Carroll the Knights went down 2-0 before storming back to pick up a Three Rivers District win. Chase Cuddy scored off an assist from Bowyer that put momentum back in River’s favor and Hill scored the next two for the win, the second off a set piece with less than a minute to go.
“It was an incredibly rough game with bodies flying all over the field,” said Whiting.
River is back in action Thursday with a home game against Alleghany.