Ashburn (May 20, 2009) - Any thoughts of a Broad Run High
School clean sweep Tuesday night in their four AA Dulles District semifinal
contests were in serious doubt early as Park View shocked the top-seeded
Spartans with three runs in the first inning, and at about the same time,
Loudoun County scored a late goal to take the top-seeded Spartan girls soccer
team into overtime.
While junior Rachel Tharp’s goal in the first minute of
overtime handed Broad Run a 2-1 win over the Raiders on the stadium field, the
Spartan softball team could not get a run across the plate against Patriot
sophomore pitcher Robin Heironimus and Park View held on for the 3-0 milestone win.
The Patriots – breaking Broad Run’s 67-game winning streak
against district opponents since the start of the 2006 season – will now face
Briar Woods Thursday at 7 p.m. at Heritage High School in the finals with the winner
advancing to the Region II tournament along with regular-season champion Broad
Run. The Falcons advanced with a 6-1 win over Dominion Tuesday.
The softball game Thursday at Heritage won’t be the only
contest with a regional bid on the line as the top-seed Broad Run boys soccer
team was halted by Potomac Falls, 1-0, Tuesday. The Panther will face Park View
– a winner in penalty kicks at Loudoun County Tuesday – in Thursday’s 8 p.m.
final with the winner clinching a bid. Broad Run still advances to regionals as
regular-season champion.
Broad Run baseball made it four Spartan teams headed for
Region II next week with junior Shane Vlasic pitching a 2-hitter with a
career-high 12 strikeouts in a 3-0 semifinal win over Loudoun County. The
Spartans will meet regular-season champion Potomac Falls on Thursday at
Heritage at 7 p.m. in the finals. The Panthers edged Dominion, 1-0, Tuesday in
eight innings. Both Potomac Falls and Broad Run will advance to regionals.
The Spartan overtime victory in girls soccer allowed No. 2
seed Heritage to clinch a regional bid Tuesday with the Pride’s 3-1 win over
Potomac Falls. Heritage will host Broad Run in the district finals Thursday at
6 p.m.
Softball: Park View
3, Broad Run 0
Park View coach Ed Abner likened his teams win over Broad Run
Tuesday to the U.S. Hockey team’s “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Russians.
Not that it was that big of an upset for the No. 4 seed
Patriots which took the Spartans into the seventh inning last week in a
scoreless duel before falling 1-0, but also for the fact that as big as the win
is, the Patriots still have to play a game to advance, much as the Americans
still had a game to play to win the gold medal after beating the Soviet Union
in 1980.
Patriot coach Ed Abner thought the 1-0 loss a week ago was a
big emotional boost going into this game.
“They kind of realized they could play with these guys,”
said Abner who hadn’t beaten Broad Run in his four years as the Patriots coach.
Abner was perfectly happy to let his girls go celebrate and
enjoy the victory before focusing on Thursday’s championship game.
“They can do almost anything they want to do tonight,” said
Abner with a laugh.
The Patriots were all hugs and smiles after the final out.
“The rivalry between Park View and Broad Run has always been
so strong. To finally get this win is just awesome,” said PV junior Rebecca
Patton.
Park View did all the damage it needed in the top of the first
inning with three unearned runs crossing the plate with two outs.
The Patriots opened the semifinal with freshmen Samantha
Thomas reaching on an error. It appeared that Spartan pitcher Judy Betz might
get out of the inning – despite hitting Robin asicHeironimus with a pitch as
she erased Thomas on a fielder’ s choice before the hit batter and then got a
comebacker for the second out.
Junior Samantha Gleason, however, reached on an infield
error to score a run and then juniors Patton and Brittany Griffin followed with
back-to-back singles to right field to make it 3-0.
The Patriots almost scored another run in the second inning
but Thomas was cut down on the basepaths trying to score on a single by
Heironimus.
Betz settled down and finished the game strong, retiring the
final 13 hitters she faced with the ball not leaving the infield.
With normal leadoff hitter and shortstop Megan Waterman out
with an injury, the Spartans juggled their line-up, moving second base Reagan
Doiron to short and Dulles District Player of the Year, catcher Haley Johnson
hit leadoff.
Broad Run had runners in four of the seven innings but the
Spartans were just 1-for-6 with runners
on base and Heironimus did a nice job of retiring the leadoff hitter she faced
in all seven innings. She finished the complete game win allowing four hits,
one walk and one hit batter. She had three strikeouts.
The Spartans came closest to scoring in the third inning
when sophomore Maggie Betz doubled and tried to score on a single but was
thrown out by Patriot second base Kristin Oravetz at the plate.
“We worked hard tonight and it finally paid off,” said
Oravetz one of two seniors on the PV roster.
Park View improves to 13-9 overall while Broad Run slipped
to 17-3.
Baseball: Broad Run
3, Loudoun County 0
Spartan junior Shane Vlasic pitched a 2-hitter with a career
12 strikeouts and Patrick Murphy hit a 2-run home run to lead No. 3 seed Broad
Run past upset-minded Loudoun County in the Dulles District semifinals.
Murphy’s shot in the third inning scored Vlasic (1-for-2)
who led off the inning with a walk against Raider pitcher Tyler Saleck.
“I got a change-up and I stroked it over the fence. It was a
line drive, I didn’t think it was going to go out,” said Murphy of his home
run.
Broad Run came into the postseason with just one home run on
the year but the Spartans now have three in the district tournament including
two dramatic home runs in the quarterfinals to beat Briar Woods in extra
innings.
Saleck worked out of
trouble in the fourth inning but gave up an RBI to Tyler Small – the hero
Monday with a walk-off grand slam home run – to make it 3-0.
The Raiders loaded the bases in the first inning on two
walks and a hit by Nick Veschi but Vlasic coaxed a ground ball out to end the
inning and proceeded to retire 18 of the
next 19 hitters he faced for the commanding victory.
“My arm felt good and my curve ball was working,” said
Vlasic.
Broad Run improves to 12-8 on the year, having won 9 of the
last 11, while LC ends the season at 6-14.
Girls Soccer: Broad
Run 2, Loudoun County 1 (Overtime)
Broad Run’s almost blemish on their 17-0-1 season came in a
0-0 tie with Loudoun County and much of Tuesday’s semifinal was looking like
another scoreless draw.
The Spartans, however, were able to get on the scoreboard in
the 55th minute when Rachel Tharp played a great ball across the
goal mouth to a wide open Taylor Starr, who tapped the ball home for a 1-0
lead.
Loudoun County got the equalizer with 6:25 remaining off a
goal by freshman Sarah Olivero after a scramble in front of the Spartan net
from a long throwin.
The game went into overtime at 1-1 but the Spartans struck
quick with Tharp scoring just 55 seconds into the 10-minute extra period.
“I didn’t really expect it. I just kicked it in,” said Tharp
of the game-winner.
Broad Run’s defense, led by all-district keeper Caitlin
Hunter kept the Raiders from scoring in the final nine minutes of overtime to
secure the win.
Loudoun County ends the season 8-7-2.
Boys Soccer: Potomac
Falls 1, Broad Run 0
For the second time in just over a week, Potomac Falls shut
out Broad Run and the win Tuesday earned the hot Panthers a trip to the Dulles
District finals.
PF has now won six straight matches to improve to 12-5-1 on
the season. Broad Run slips to 12-6-0.
The Panthers score by David Becerra came in the first half
off an Asa Fox throwin that Conor Shanosky
was able to flick. It was Becerra’s first goal of the season.
“Conor got the flick and I was at the back post,” said
Becerra.
Potomac Falls junior keeper Ryan Howard celebrated his 17th
birthday Tuesday and he was the “Man of the Match” for PF, keeping the Spartans
off the scoreboard. Howard especially came up big in the dying minutes of the
contest as PF defended and BR had multiple long throwins by Paul Ellington into
the six.
“I knew I needed to step up and take care of my box and that
is what I did tonight,” said Howard who is a club soccer teammate of Ellington’s
so he was very familiar with the Spartans dangerous long throwins.
PF coach Dave Gryder said his team is a young team that is
starting to believe in themselves.
“We held on, they had a lot of good chances … defensively we
held on and pulled a 1-0 victory,” said Gryder.
“My goalie came up with a lot of good saves. I think he played out of
him mind a lot of times.”
