By Phil Murphy
Senior Multimedia/Content Editor
Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area
Click the listed links for all photos and videos from the Virginia AAA state championship!Second-year Godwin coach
Herb Modrak herded his Eagles back to the bench from midfield, swinging his team's trophy down by his hip.
Sure, it was hardware from the state tournament. But it wasn't the trophy he was hoping for.
"It's not what we wanted, but it's a great season," he said. "It's rough right now. I know the guys are hurting, it's a hard one to swallow."
Mills Godwin fell to Cox, 2-1, in overtime in the Virginia AAA soccer state championship at Westfield on Sunday.
The Falcons, who won on an 83rd-minute header by sophomore
Neil Harrison, played a man down after the 23rd minute when their starting left back received a straight red card and an automatic ejection.
"We had a man advantage, we were level at halftime, and we controlled the play for the most part for most of the half," said Modrak, whose team held a 23-12 shooting advantage. "Their keeper made a huge
save in overtime to keep us out of the net.
"I kept thinking we were going to get one, we were scrambling around in the box. It just didn't come."
With the win, Cox became the first Eastern Region team to win the state title since Kempsville in 1997. It was also the only one of the four regional champions to win its first-round game.
The Falcons took the lead in the 14th minute when, after a fluid build-up, captain
Ryan Oakes hit a low cross to the top of the six-yard box that midfielder
Hunter Byrnes punched home with a sliding first touch.
The Eagles equalized by way of electrifying striker
Valeriy Sviderskiy, who also scored the game-sealing goal in their semifinal, 2-0 win on Saturday.
Senior
Matt Bley fed Sviderskiy along the right flank on a counterattack. Sviderskiy took a flawless first touch towards goal before slipping a shot far-post to tie the score.
He leads a more-than-modest contingent of returning underclassmen for Modrak, which includes junior
Garrett Harvey, junior
Russell Bootwright, and junior
Brian Clark.
Sviderskiy is a freshman.
"He has so much speed and so much potential," Modrak said. "Another year of development another year of maturity, I get excited just thinking about having him for three more years. We should be able to run a lot of speed up top on teams next year.
"As much as we're looking forward to what we have next year, we just want to enjoy what we've done this year."
Email: pmurphy@digitalsports.comGodwin (18-3-2) 1 0 0 0 -- 1Cox (21-2-1) 1 0 1 0 -- 2
Goals:
CX -- Byrnes (14)
MG -- Sviderskiy (27)
CX -- Harrison (83)
