Windsor falls in Tri-Rivers soccer finale

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, June 3, 2008

WINDSOR-Appomattox Regional Governor’s School jumped out to a 3-0 lead at the half and never looked back as the Dragons downed Windsor High School 6-2 in the championship game of the Tri-Rivers District soccer tournament Friday night.

ARGS, also the Tri-Rivers regular season champion, has defeated Windsor three times this season.

Windsor will play at King William High School at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the first

round of the Group A Region A playoffs. ARGS will host West Point High School in the first round of the regionals.

The Dragons (13-1), took advantage of bad defensive play by the Dukes with 31:50 to play in the first half when Caitlin McKelway passed to Brandon Tayler, who pounded one past Windsor goalie Jacob Tynes for the early 1-0 lead.

Tayler scored his second

goal of the game at the 23:42 mark when he hit the net off a rebound off the left post on a shot by Evan Black. Black scored at the 9:18 mark off a rebound from a corner kick to give ARGS the 3-0 lead.

The Dragons continued to pepper Tynes with shots for the rest of the half. ARGS dominated the first half, outhustling Windsor and getting to the ball quicker.

The Dukes picked it up in the second half and played much better, especially on the offensive side. Nearly 10 minutes into the half, Windsor’s Timmy Songer scored on a penalty kick after a Windsor player was tripped in the box.

The teams played even for 15 minutes, but ARGS then pushed three goals through in the next 10 minutes. Sam Perry scored unassisted at 16:17, Dean Giavos, who was named the district Player of the Year, scored unassisted, and Perry scored his second goal of the game at 6:05 to give the Dragons a 6-1 lead.

Joe Owens scored for Windsor during stoppage time, but the damage was done.

The game could have been worse had it not been for some sharp play by Tynes, who finished the game with 11 saves. Windsor (9-8) head coach Matt Burgess said he changed strategy at the half, which moved the Dukes into a more aggressive style of

play on offense.

&uot;We switched more to offense. We played more defense in the first half, and that wasn’t doing us any good,&uot; he said. &uot;So I think the offensive addition kept the pressure on them and less on Jacob.&uot;

Burgess said his team picked the game up near the end.

&uot;We played our best right at the end. It looked like the guys started really trying hard. I wish we played like that the whole game. We could have given Governor’s School a run for their money.&uot;

ARGS dominated the Tri-Rivers District this season.

&uot;We have more travel players on our team, and we are heavily dominated by seniors,&uot; said ARGS head coach John England. &uot;They have played the other three years and they understand where they are going to be moving the ball. Because of that, they have better touch and anticipate where they are going to play. That helped us against Windsor.&uot;

England said Windsor was the Dragons’ biggest competition in the district this year.

&uot;Windsor is a great team as far as our district is concerned. We really like playing Windsor because they help us improve our game. They challenge us,&uot; England said.

The Dukes beat Surry County 7-3 on Thursday night to advance to Friday’s final.