Girls' soccer pounds Trojans

OCT 7, BLAZER STADIUM-

The Blazers were finally able to play a strong first half on offense, demolishing the Gaithersburg Trojans 6-0 after taking a 4-0 first-half lead. Junior Ria Richardson led the team with three goals, leap-frogging herself into second place on the team in goals scored with four.

Every Blazer seemed to play well on Gaithersburg's half, but the stars tonight were clearly Richardson and sophomore Cate Rassman, who scored the team's second goal and played very alert offense, setting up the center forwards and midfielders for shots again and again. And for once, Blair's drives and breakaways were not in vain, as the girls flexed their finishing muscles consistently for an entire game.

Coach Robert Gibb was quick to laud his players' performances despite the clear mismatch, and he gave particular credit to Richardson. "The biggest story in this game was Ria scoring a hat trick. She was very humble about it, but you've got to be there and you've got to put the ball in the net and she just did that today," he said.

A minor concern was the team's apparent lapse in defensive communication. A few breakaways almost got through to co-captain and goalkeeper Erika Pelz-Butler in the first half, and in the second half to junior Julia Simon-Mishel, who replaced Blair's star goalie because of the comfortable halftime lead. The errors were never long-lived, however, and the Trojans were never able to get a decent shot off.

Following tonight's easy win over Gaithersburg, Blair enters its second difficult stretch of the season, facing three top county teams in a row. "This is our big stretch: Sherwood, Walter Johnson and Churchill back to back to back," said Gibb. "Hopefully this game will give us the momentum we need to win those next three."

The Blazers are at Sherwood Oct 9. Walter Johnson comes to Blair Oct 14, and the girls head to Churchill for their penultimate match of the season Oct 17. All varsity matches are at 7 p.m.