James River will host Lord Botetourt in an intra-county soccer game in Springwood tonight. The game is the second of an all-Botetourt County doubleheader, with the girls game starting things off. The boys will play second, at approximately 7:15 p.m.
This is the second meeting between the two. LB won in Daleville, 8-1, in a game that was much closer than the score indicated.
Botetourt comes in at 10-1 on the season after falling for the first time last week, 4-2 to William Fleming in Daleville.
“Fleming was quick, dynamic and very technical up top,” said LB coach Tim Wright. “Defensively that has to be met with a sound and organized defense. All four of their goals happened within 8-10 yards of the goal line; unfortunately they were able to pull us apart, opening up gaps for them to exploit in our defensive box.”
Botetourt goal scorers were senior Captains Nathan Rich and Trey Smith.
The Cavaliers bounced back with a 1-0 win over Staunton River in Moneta on Friday. Nathan Rich was the lone goal scorer from a header off a cross by Trey Rice.
The Cavaliers are in second place in the Blue Ridge District, one win shy of Northside. Botetourt will be at Northside in a big game Friday, hoping to take over first place in the district.
“We have big second round matches against three district teams and one non-district team,” said Wright. “We are working on becoming less consistently inconsistent in our play. The success of these next few games is going to determine if the guys can put together all the practice sessions that we have worked on going into the final weeks of regular season. That is going to make a huge difference.”
River was weathered out of a game at Radford on Friday, and lost a 1-0 decision to Glenvar on Monday in Springwood.
“We just didn’t seem to connect,” said coach Jared Whiting. “We had the effort, just not the chemistry. Two weeks with no games hurt us. I’m not making excuses, we just didn’t play well enough to win.”
The Knights are scheduled to play Giles on Thursday.
