Stone Bridge Alters Approach, Charges Ahead to Final

Stone Bridge 4, Langley 0

Playing on a narrow field last night at Madison in the Virginia AAA Liberty District boys' soccer semifinals, No. 1 Stone Bridge was forced to abandon any ideas of spreading the field and instead had to play much more directly.

But the vertical style suited the Bulldogs, who charged to the title game with a 4-0 victory over Langley.

"We try to play the game [where] whatever a team gives us we're going to take," Stone Bridge Coach Randy May said. "If we have to possess, we'll do that. But if we're going to be given opportunities to play forward and play direct, we're going to punish you until you stop us from doing it."

The Bulldogs will face No. 5 Jefferson tomorrow at 8 p.m. at Madison in the district championship game. Jefferson defeated Marshall, 1-0, in the first semifinal game on a goal by Evan Burch in the 66th minute.

With senior forward Ronnie Shaban -- who rejoined the team after a week-long trip to Germany with the Olympic Development Program's Region I team -- serving as the target player up top, Stone Bridge (14-0-1, 8-0-1) pushed forward relentlessly.

After nearly taking the lead on multiple occasions, the Bulldogs finally broke through with two minutes left in the half.

First a quick throw-in freed forward Mike Herndon, whose cross found an unmarked Eric Skogerboe inside the 18-yard box, and the senior gave the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead.

Then, with just seconds remaining in the half, a throw-in from the left side found Shaban, who flicked a header over the keeper. The ball was cleared off the line by a defender and the whistle blew for halftime, but the linesman signaled that the ball had crossed the goal line before it was cleared and Stone Bridge suddenly held a two-goal lead at the break.

Langley (7-4-2, 4-4-1) came out with much more energy at the start of the second half, but Stone Bridge scored twice in a two-minute span to put the game out of reach.

"We've had a couple of tough games on narrow fields," said Shaban, who assisted on the final goal. "But I think we've adapted well, we've been through scenario after scenario, so I think our team is ready to take on whatever the situations are."