THE GAZETTE
Page B-4
Wednesday, September 11, 2013 d
Rockville hopes to be like G. Counsel Sherwood volleyball BOYS SOCCER NOTEBOOK BY NICK CAMMAROTA When Julio Zarate decided to take over the boys’ soccer program at Rockville High, he knew his assignment was difficult. He knew the club didn’t win a game in 2012 and, far worse, didn’t score a goal. But as bad as those statistics are, the former Our Lady of Good Counsel coach wasn’t aware of just how much work needed to be done laying a foundation for the program until he began work in March. “It’s been a bit bumpy,” Zarate said. “When we took over this team, we knew what we were getting into, but not really. We started working with them to see what was the problem. We’ve been working on academics and we’ve been going every week to talk to the kids, trying to recruit, to make them be more interested and come back to play soccer.” Zarate said there were roughly 40 to 50 players at tryouts for the team this preseason, including junior goal-
keeper Benjamin Neely and senior defender Oscar Rivera, two players expected to lead the club this fall. Zarate said the core of his team consists of sophomores and he hopes to build a solid foundation despite obvious hurdles, such as the lack of a feeder program. He hopes this season will mark the beginning of a dramatic turnaround for the Rams. “Good Counsel was exactly like Rockville was when we took over,” Zarate said. “It was the worst program in the [Washington Catholic Athletic Conference]. Kids had basketball shoes and basketball shorts at practice and we thought, ‘Oh man, what are we doing here?’ But the kids changed the program around. With Rockville, we’re trying to do something similar.”
Patriot games Thomas S.Wootton’s boys soccer team had a solid showing in a 2-1 loss against strong DeMatha on Friday. After losing a number of key players from last year’s 4A state championship club to graduation, the Patriots, who received votes in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll, didn’t appear starry-eyed or timid in going up against a national power. “We were excited for the
off to hot start Three-time defending state champions win Magruder Invitational
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PREP NOTEBOOK BY TRAVIS MEWHIRTER
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Thomas S. Wooton High School’s Cristobal Corvolan (right) fights for the ball against DeMatha Catholic’s Julian Dove on Friday. opportunity to come out here and play a very talented team. They were excited about it not so much because they were playing DeMatha but because they were going to have an opportunity to show their quality,” said Wootton coach Doug Schuessler of the first meeting between the two teams. “They were disappointed in the result, but that’s because we’re not out here to lose. We’re out here to compete and win.” Perhaps Wootton’s best chance of the game came in the waning minutes of the second half. Forward Jared Nozick sprinted down the far sideline with space in front of him, but suddenly fell to the turf with a
severe leg cramp and lost the ball out of bounds. Following the match, Schuessler spoke about his team’s mentality as defending state champs and channeled his inner-Rick Pitino. “I don’t think that anyone is kidding themselves. Matt Hoy is not walking out on that field. Sam Summerlin is not walking out on that field. But you know what? A bunch of other guys are,” he said. “I think there’s a belief that anything’s possible and there’s a real determination to reach for it and try to grab that ring again.” ncammarota@gazette.net
Walter Johnson completes comeback Wildcats rally from 2-0 halftime deficit to defeat Fallston in season opener n
GIRLS SOCCER NOTEBOOK BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN What started off Friday evening as an indicator of just how far the Walter Johnson High School girls’ soccer team would have to come if it intended to be a 2013 postseason contender turned into a
glimpse of the Wildcats’ promising potential. Down 2-0 at halftime during its 3-2 season-opening win against Harford County’s Fallston High, Walter Johnson coach Liz Friedman said she half expected her young team, which lost an incredibly talented group of seniors a year ago, to throw in the towel. Instead, the Wildcats scored three second-half goals to clinch the victory. One of the most exciting aspects of the win, Friedman said, was that the three scores came from a pair of freshmen forwards.
it’s nice to know the freshmen can be upon.” The Academy of the Holy Cross followed up its 5-0 season-opening win against Montgomery Blair — on the Blazers’ schedule as its final scrimmage — with a 2-1, come-from-behind win over Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart. Dani White scored both Tartans goals, the game winner off a cross from Marissa Madaras in the final five minutes of regulation. jbeekman@gazette.net
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In what is widely expected to be a parity-filled year, Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Clarksburg earned the firstmatch-to-go-to-five-games award. After taking the first two games, B-CC had a little trouble getting past the Coyotes’ blockers, according to Barons’ coach Marie Cornejo, and the match was extended to the fifth, where B-CC ultimately prevailed in its season opener.
Field hockey While the Sherwood volleyball team was taking home an early-season tournament title in Magruder’s gym, the field hockey team busied itself by defending a similar title on the field for the second consecutive year in Paint Branch’s annual tournament. The two-headed monster of a scoring duo in Emily Kenul and Gabrielle Yore didn’t miss a beat from last year. Kenul scored four goals in a 7-3 win over Long Reach in the opening round and Yore added a pair in thechampionshipgameagainst Reservoir, which the Warriors won 3-0. “It’s definitely nice to start the season with a couple of wins,” Sherwood coach Amy Morse said. “I felt confident that we would be scoring goals but we had been moving a couple things around so I wasn’t quite sure what that would look like but it seems to have worked out pretty well.” Holy Cross’ Nicole Lantuh scored a hat-trick in a 6-1 win over Holton-Arms, the first victory under first-year head coach Lindsey Weller. Montgomery Blair’s Allison Chen added one of her own in a 5-1 season-opening win against Northwood. In her first varsity start, Our Lady of Good Counsel goalie Caroline Campbell shut out Stone Ridge in what became a 1-0 overtime victory, the lone goal coming off the stick of Mallory Fox. In another 1-0 contest, Winston Churchill’s Clare Nolan scored the only goal of the game to top Quince Orchard, which has already lost three games by one-goal margins. 1906764
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Cammie Mutha scored the first and go-ahead goals; Anya Bitchek netted the game-tying goal. Junior forward Caroline Braviak assisted the Wildcats’ first two goals. “I was surprised, actually, for a lot of us we could easily see a team fall apart, especially when you’re not in a playoff situation where it’s lose and go home,” Friedman said. “The girls didn’t panic and rush, there was no freak out, like, ‘How are we going to score three goals in 40 minutes?!’ They didn’t play out of control, they kept their cool. And
There’s one of two ways the Montgomery County high school volleyball world can view Sherwood High School’s success at the annual Magruder Invitational on Saturday: The Warriors claimed the title, reestablishing themselves as one of the premier programs in the post-Alex Holston era, or they lost to Tuscarora, thereby technically putting an end to their vaunted 57-match winning streak — but at the same time, technically not. By all means and purposes, Sherwood’s 5-1 run in the allday tournament on Saturday counts for a record of some sorts, but not to the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, which, in the minds of some, is the determining factor if the streak is still intact or not. “That’s not really for me to decide,” Sherwood coach Brian McCarty said Sunday afternoon. “[The tournament] has never really been included in the winning streak. I don’t want totakeanythingawayfrom[Col. Zadok Magruder Coach] Scott [Zanni], it’s a great tournament and they’re real games, but these don’t count in the official records.” The tournament featured best of three-set matches while the regular season features best of five. The Warriors could still be a contender come late October for the state tournament. “I think all the work the girls put in over the summer and over the preseason — they really grew,” McCarty said. Sherwood knocked out Zanni’s squad, which went 4-1 in the tournament, in the semifinals. Others in the county to participate were Northwest (22), Richard Montgomery (1-3), John F. Kennedy (0-4), Paint Branch (2-2), Quince Orchard (1-3) and Wheaton (0-4).
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Zarate in process of rebuilding Rams with sophomore core
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