The Woodrow Wilson boys and girls soccer teams opened their seasons Friday night at the YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex.
Both teams played to hard fought draws, however, there were plenty of positives taken away from game one by each coach.
Trailing 2-nil at the break, the Beckley girls answered with two second half goals and some solid defense to walk away with a 2-2 tie against Ripley.
Senior Sophie Hall cut into the deficit early in the second half with a blast just outside the 18 before fellow senior Maddy Lanna evened the match on a spectacular kick with just over two minutes to play.
“A standing bicycle kick,” girls head coach Julie Agnor said to describe Lanna’s blast. “Maddy is one of those players you never know what you are going to get out of her. She is all heart, all body and she throws everything into it. The goalkeeper never saw it coming.”
The Vikings took the early advantage on an own goal and a strike just inside the near post from freshman Ryleigh Durbin.
Adding to the first half frustration for the Flying Eagles was a goal that was denied on an offside call when a direct kick spilled out in front of the keeper and was banged in by Beckley.
“The first goal was tough. It was a ricochet off a defender’s foot. It happens all the time. A good defender is going to do that on accident,” Agnor said. “Then we had one called back that was even tougher which would have given us a 3-2 win. (Ripley) is a very tough and very physical team, but my girls were tough and they handled it very well.”
After some adjustments at halftime, Beckley was able to apply more pressure in the final 40 minutes and limit the chances for the visitors.
“We made some corrections on the outside midfielders and we tightened up our talking on the field. We also got the ball off our feet a lot faster,” Agnor said. “In the slower scrimmages we had, it was easier to dribble through traffic. You can’t do that in a high paced game. They overloaded a side when they attacked, so we fixed some things in that regard also.”
Playing a team filled with seniors, Agnor knew her girls would be in for a tough opening match.
“We stared off really slow. The hard part was in the preseason all of our scrimmages were much slower paced games. We talked it, coached it and we practiced it, but it never equals what happens in a game,” Agnor explained. “The one thing about these girls is they don’t quit. They are fighters to the end. They have always been that way.”
The boys team also had a tough opener welcoming Fairmont Senior to Carter Foundation Field Friday, battling the Polar Bears to scoreless tie.
“Fairmont is a good team. They won two state titles back-to-back and made it back to the semifinals last year,” boys head coach Steve Laraba said. “They are going to win a lot of games and there is a really good chance they are here in November (for the state soccer tournament).”
Fielding a young team this year, Laraba found plenty of positives from his team.
“I think from the midway point of the first half through the second half, we bossed the game. We were able to break the press well and we forced them to play a lot of long balls to get into our final third,” Laraba said. “When we got into the middle and their final third, we created some really good chances. We just have to take advantage of it. We talked about having one chance in the first half and one in the second half that we should have had.”
Although they could not cash in their opportunities, the Flying Eagles yielded very little to the Polar Bears on the back end.
“(Fairmont) had four shots on goal. You are always nervous on set pieces and things like that, but there was nothing really clear cut to feel like we got lucky tonight,” Laraba said. “I think they got lucky a couple of times. We just have to grow into being able to finish those things off.”
The girls team will travel to PikeView Saturday, while the boys head north to battle Class AAA defending state champion Morgantown.
“Knowing we can play this well against one of the better teams in the state, regardless of classification is a really good sign,” Laraba said. “Now we just need to get a quick recovery and get ready for Morgantown.”
