Rams get one for the thumb
By Dave Buschenfeldt
Many teams would not react well to giving up a goal with 14 minutes remaining in a scoreless state championship game. But for the Robinson girls soccer team, it simply served as a wake-up call Saturday afternoon at Westfield High School.“We were down last game,” said senior goalkeeper Katherine Yount, who saw Battlefield senior Jessica Jewell sneak a shot past her for a 1-0 lead late in the second half. “I knew they were going to come back. They just needed someone to slap them in the face and wake them up a little bit.”
The goal did exactly that, and after looking sluggish for much of the game – which was played in near-100-degree temperatures – the Rams answered just 23 seconds later when sophomore Stephanie Johnson deflected home a cross from sophomore Jensen Smith to knot the score at 1-1.
The teams remained tied at the end of regulation, and it was not until junior LeighAnne Baxter fired home a shot from the top of the box eight minutes into overtime that Robinson secured the Virginia AAA state championship with a 2-1 victory.
“The kids have shown a lot of character this year,” said coach Jim Rike, who has now won five state titles with the Rams. “When we've gotten behind, they've come right back and scored very quickly. That's one of the things we practice. A lot of teams would hang their head when they get scored on. These kids just get mad and come back and score.”
It was a phenomenal 2008 season for Robinson, which won its final 17 games and 21 of 22 overall. Making it more impressive was the fact that the Rams were anointed as the team to beat before the season even began.
"Last year, it was fun because nobody really expected us to do much," Rike said of his 2007 team that started six freshmen and reached the region semifinals. "This year, the pressure was a lot greater. Everybody said, 'Well, you've got so many kids coming back. You've got all the pieces.' It's so much more stressful when everybody expects you to do well, and if you don't, you feel like you've let everybody down."
With 17 players – including nine starters – returning next year, Robinson is sure to face outside expectations again, and is in a favorable position to follow in the footsteps of the 2006-2007 Lake Braddock Bruins and repeat as state champions.
“Every year, there's more and more parity in the region, there's more and more parity around the state,” Rike said. “We lose two key components. We'll have nine starters back, but we'll lose Katherine in goal and we lose [Kristen Smith] up top. We'll be good, we'll be strong. Whether we'll repeat, who knows? We'll play it out next year. It's a new chapter.”