By Phil Murphy
Content Editor, DigitalSports.com
**Check below the game story for video players with highlights. All boys' and girls' game clips are posted in two separate video players below.**
The Northern Region girls' and boys' soccer championships held Friday at Yorktown featured the most decorated crop of coaches in the tournament's 27-year history.
The girls' finale showcased men who have each been recognized as Girls' Soccer Coach of the Year – nationally – by the National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA). Robinson's Jim Rike won the prestigious award in 2005, while Westfield's Christian Godart was his successor in 2006.
The boys' finale was highlighted by coaches who hold a combined seven Virginia AAA state championships. Stone Bridge's Randy May led his team to three titles in four years at West Springfield, and Robinson's Jac Cicala won four titles in an eight-year span at Lake Braddock in the 1980s, winning the title games by a combined score of 16-1.
With that caliber of leader conducting his orchestra 30 feet away, all four coaches looked for anything that would give their teams an edge.
"I showed them the hat," said May, who had coached at Cornell for 18 seasons before he was at West Springfield. "I've been wearing the hat that I've had for three championships. I've got the shoes from 2004. I brought them out of retirement. I'm wearing the belt. The eight years I've been coaching, I've been wearing the belt. I have the shorts that I wear every time we go for the regional or state tournaments.
"I've got all the pieces. I'm not sure, but maybe a little luck can rub off."
In the first game of the doubleheader, the Robinson girls defeated Westfield, 2-1, despite scored all three goals in the game. The Rams benefited from goals by junior LeighAnne Baxter and sophomore Audrey Barry, but had to survive an own-goal header that bounded off the post to cut the lead to one.
For the Rams (18-1-0), who have outscored opponents 54-10 this season, it marked their third win this season over the Bulldogs, all of which have been by the same, 2-1 score line.
"I thought we could have done as well last year as we did this year," said Rike, who has garnered 26 different Coach of the Year awards. "We ran into a very determined Lake Braddock team and they beat us in penalty kicks. They went on and won states.
"I went down to watch the state tournament and Chris Godart and I sat in the stands together. We looked at each other after the game and said, 'We could've beat Cox, too.' This year, we came back with the attitude that we wanted to do a little better than we did last year."
The Rams could not have taken a bigger initial step towards that aspiration in this year's region final. Baxter headed a cross into the left upper-90 in the seventh minute and Robinson never relinquished the lead. Barry's 17th goal of the season in the 43rd minute was immediately countered by a Westfield goal in the 45th minute to provide the final margin.
"We had some momentum going," said Baxter, who heard a heightened crowd eruption when her name was called during the individual post-game award ceremony. "Jensen [Smith] went down and crossed it and I was just there. There was a lot excitement; it was really exciting to get ahead early."
The latter half of Friday's championship games similarly provided early fireworks. Bulldog senior Ronnie Shaban netted a goal from a third-minute throw-in, and the team held off a series of Ram surges in what proved a 1-0 victory.
Stone Bridge won all four of its tournament games by the score 1-0 en route to the Northern Region crown.
"The key is playing together," defender Caleb Robertson said. "That one thing we've tried to work on all year is just molding as unit – as a back four – sliding, going back and forth, covering, stepping through the ball. Everything we did was perfect today.
"It was awesome."
Albeit in front of a more-than-trustworthy back line, the one-goal games have presented May with unparalleled final-minute stress on four of the last 11 nights.
"I was looking at the clock, going, 'I teach class and I can get through class in five minutes like nothing. This is painful,'" said May, who has reached the state tournament five times. "I can hold off a class for five minutes with a quality experience, but this was a special moment."
The win provides overdue prestige to the Bulldogs' soccer program. Stone Bridge was named last week as the No. 1 Virginia sports school by Sports Illustrated.
"We've waited four years for this," said Shaban, who moved from defender to forward before this season. "Four years, we haven't gotten a single championship. Nothing. We've been waiting four years for this."
Added Robertson: "This is beautiful."
But the win was no less special for Rike, whose accomplishments in his 28 seasons as Robinson's girls' coach defy adjectives.
"Every one is special," said a tearful Rike, winner a Virginia High School League public-school record 441 games and eight regional championships. "When you get to the point in you are in my career, they just become special, because you don't know how many more there are going to be."
Email: pmurphy@digitalsports.com
Boys' Championship
Stone Bridge 1, Robinson 0
Girls' Championship
Robinson 1, Westfield 0
