MC soccer girls eye district play

Girls soccer teams from Wilson Memorial and Madison County met last week for the first of their two regular-season matches.

Just like it did a year ago, Wilson Memorial won at home (this time 3-1), but this past week Madison’s girls had the opportunity to even the season series on Tuesday before opening district play against Rappahannock County April 9.With a record of 4-2 going into this past week, Madison Head Coach Danny Crigler wasn’t too concerned about the outcome of the match against Wilson Memorial.

“The games against them, Orange County and [Greene County’s] William Monroe do not count against you,” he said. “They are tune-ups for what matters, the district matches. We worry about our district play,” which was set to begin today at home against Rappahannock, minus junior varsity action because ‘Rapp’ dropped the program.

While the non-district games mean nothing in the district standings, Crigler and Assistant Coach Bruce Parker watch carefully to pinpoint what needs improving.

“We played better than the 3-1 score,” said Crigler. “(Wilson Memorial) pressured the ball very well but we didn’t give up.”

Madison’s lone goal came courtesy of a penalty kick by junior midfielder Rachel Strahan.

As the team gears up for district play, sophomore Samantha Cubbage has a team-leading eight goals on the season and is easily on pace to eclipse last year’s output of 16 goals.

Crigler is impressed with her efforts and added that freshmen newcomers Lindsey Wheeler and Kayla Compton have been welcome additions.

“We’ve played really well,” he said. “We’ve connected a lot of passes. With playing just one game last week we were able to rest our players and they should be ready to be on pace for the two-games-a-week schedule.”

Crigler and Parker look to tweak a couple of things to make the team better.

“We’re looking to shore up our defense,” said Crigler. “We’re trying to get the players to understand zonal defense with the concept of working as a cohesive unit. Communication (among the players) is vital.”

Going into today’s match against Rappahannock, Madison had met one other district team already this season.

On March 26 the Madison girls lost to last year’s Bull Run District, Region B and Group A state champion George Mason, 5-1.

Crigler, who is looking ahead to how his team will match up against other district teams, noted that George Mason defeated Clarke County last week by the score of 4-0, the same margin of defeat as that in Madison’s loss to George Mason.

Next week Madison’s girls soccer teams travel first to Strasburg on April 17 and then to Clarke County on April 20.