On a chilly Tuesday evening, RM’s girls varsity soccer team lost away at Walter Johnson 0-6.
One of the bright sides of a rather unfortunate game was that senior captain Hannah Greco was back in the starting lineup after being absent from the last game due to illness. Otherwise, although the Rockets fought hard, the Wildcats dominated the game.
Walter Johnson started the game strong, with the first shot of the game coming from them in the third minute. A minute later, RM had a penalty scare after a through ball ended up with a WJ player in RM’s penalty box. The player ended up on the ground, but luckily for the Rockets, the referee waved play on.
Five minutes in, senior captain Sonia Postolache went to ground after a hard tackle. She had to be helped off the field, raising concerns from the team and the RM supporters about whether or not she’d be okay.
Luckily, after several minutes of rest, Postolache was able to go back onto the field and play the rest of the game incident-free. Unfortunately, she picked up an ankle injury that, although she’s still able to play, has forced her to wear a brace for the coming practices and games.
The next fifteen minutes of play involved WJ generally maintaining possession of the ball, with RM getting some good chances on occasion.
Walter Johnson capitalized on their dominance in the sixteenth minute of the game. A WJ player made a streaking run down the field with the ball and finished with a goal.
Richard Montgomery tried to fight back–soon after the WJ goal the Rockets’ first shot came from freshman Helena Chang, after a good spell of passing.
However, Walter Johnson got their second goal with fifteen minutes left in the half after some fancy footwork from one of their players.
Less than a minute later, Walter Johnson scored again, this time after a WJ player dribbled the ball down the sideline and shot it over the goalkeeper’s reach and into the net.
Richard Montgomery had another good bout of passing with five minutes left in the half, but it unfortunately didn’t result. In the last minute, RM’s second shot on goal came from sophomore Linn Barthelemy.
The Rockets went into halftime with a three-goal deficit.
Three minutes into the second half, though, that turned into a four-goal deficit, when WJ scored again.
In the thirteenth minute, an impressive sequence of passes from RM allowed them to move the ball down the field towards the WJ goal, but it ended when a heavy touch resulted in WJ regaining possession.
A minute later, goalkeeper junior Chloe Shankle had a great save after a WJ player dribbled into the penalty box, but Walter Johnson scored a fifth goal soon after.
In the twenty-fourth minute of the half, Richard Montgomery gained a corner. WJ cleared the ball from their penalty box, but a few minutes later another chance arose for the Rockets when Barthelemy headed the ball to freshman Kyra Wisneski, who fired a shot at the goalie.
After battling or the remaining minutes, the game ended on a sour note for RM when with two minutes left in the half, a Walter Johnson player dribbled the ball down the line and slotted it into the goal.
The final score was six goals for the Wildcats, and zero for the Rockets.
“I think we played really well,” said Barthelemy. “We shouldn’t look at the score. 6-0 is high, but I think we played really well. We kept going.”
The Rockets will hope to win on Thursday, when they face Einstein at home at 7:15.
Featured photo by Ayesha Khawaja
