Rams Come Back to Tie Westfield in Concorde Opener

In fewer than two months, the Robinson and Westfield girls’ soccer teams will be prepping for the Concorde District tournament, and someone will look back at the schedule and see that the teams played on March 22.

That person will look at the 1-1 tie (90 minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of overtime) and attempt to extrapolate something from the game. Westfield took an early lead on a goal from Kirsten Miller when the game wasn’t even 20 minutes old. It took Robinson until midway through the second half to equalize after Westfield couldn’t clear a corner kick.

But anything more than that – aside from the physicality (more than one player had to leave the game with a collision-related injury) – will be difficult, since each team will have played 10 more games by then.

“We’ll see them in the district tournament, I’m sure,” said Rams Coach Jim Rike. “It’s good to see what you’ve got against a good team. I know we could have done better than we did. We’ll go in with a little more polish next time.”

Neither team finished the game at full strength, and some players on each team were showing fatigue from the Jefferson Cup, a club team competition in Richmond held over the weekend.

While Westfield Coach Kristi Williams was pleased to come on to rival turf (in this case grass) early in the season and gain a point from the tie, most of the Robinson players had the opposite perspective.

“We played down (compared) to our potential,” said Robinson captain Stephanie Herb. “Westfield’s a good team, and we can handle them next time we play.”

The Concorde District teams play each other just once in the relatively short season ahead of the playoffs, which prompts games like Tuesday’s, which saw the Rams (2-0-1) playing their third game of the season while the Bulldogs (0-0-2) were taking the field together for just the second time. Consequently each team was still getting comfortable, especially after losing some key seniors from 2010.

The teams would have rather faced each other later in the season, for sure.

“It’s ridiculous to have a game like this early in the season,” Rike said. “The preseason is meant for you to have four or five games where you can kind of switch people out and feel things out, make sure you have all the right people in the right places. In the third game of the season, you don’t have that luxury.”

Each team has a district game early next week, too. Robinson travels to Centreville and Westfield hosts Herndon.

“I don’t do the scheduling,” said Williams. “It is what it is and we just have to take it a game at a time.”

While each team will have more experience in May, the Bulldogs and the Rams will have different lineups, too.

For example, Robinson’s other captain, Kate McDonald, was out with a knee contusion suffered during a preseason scrimmage, while Herb was playing with a tightly wrapped right quadriceps.

The Rams put together a solid second half boosted by Kuter’s goal, which came after Lindsay Mondloch’s corner kick from the right side. The first blast was deflected away by Westfield defenders, but Jeannine Molleda followed with a volley over the center of the defense. Kuter was there to collect the loose ball and knock it past Westfield goalie Shannon Casey.

Herb said she thought the score gave the Rams a boost in momentum that allowed them to hold off two rushes that might have resulted in a go-ahead Westfield goal.

“I think both teams had opportunities they didn’t capitalize on, and that’s why we have a draw,” said Williams.