RADFORD- In a give and take game under the blistering midday sun, Galax took advantage of a rapidly draining Goochland team to bounce back from a 2-1 halftime deficit and beat the Bulldogs 3-2 in Group A state semi-final action.

  Goochland started off the game as hot as the outside temperature, driving into Galax territory but coming away with repeated near misses.

  It was the ‘could-have-been’ goals that irritated head coach Ron Spessard more than anything else and contributed to the loss. “I can sum it up for you very quickly,” he said. “Any time you take 13 shots on goal and only make two points you’re not finishing your shots. That’s what lost the whole game. We had plenty of opportunity. We could have taken the game at any time. We had double the shots on goal as the other team and they were legitimate shots.

  “It’s one of those frustrating things as coach can ever run against,” Spessard said. “You’ve got shots on goal, you’re right there, you’re in position and they’re not going in. Not to take anything away from them (Galax). They’re a very good team. They’re very aggressive, they stay right on top of you. They stay in position, they pass well and they’ve got good speed.”

  Despite missing from in close, the Bulldogs got on the board first when Tyler Woods swept in from the right side to give Goochland a 1-0 lead with 31:14 on the first half clock.

  But the Maroon Tide quickly evened the game when a shot went in and out of the hands of Bulldogs’ keeper Matthew Eby and Galax’s speedy senior Dio Rodriguez booted in the first of his three scores in the game. “It was speed, but it was also he caught some people out of position,” Spessard said. “When you have his speed and you catch someone making a mistake on position…He’s very quick and he can get in and out very fast you don’t want to make a mistake.”

  Goochland came back to take the halftime lead 2-1 on a goal by Bryan Henley with five minutes to play but in the second half, Galax took the field with a vengeance and simply out-played the hard-working Bulldogs’ team.

  Rodriguez re-tied the game 2-2 when Eby came out from the goal to retrieve the ball and the lightning fast Galax player zipped past him for the score.
  Eight minutes later, Rodriguez followed his previous pattern to put Galax ahead for good 3-2.

  Though disappointed with the loss, Spessard said it was still a superior season for the Goochland team that made it past the regional semi-finals for the first time in school history. “It was a lot of fun, we enjoyed coming this far in the season,” he said. “It’s further than we’d ever gotten before, so we learned from it like everything else and hopefully we’ll be back again next year and give it a shot.”

  Spessard has good reason to believe his team will make a repeat performance next season because he only loses four players to graduation. “We’ve got 11 juniors on my squad and nine of them are starters so I plan to bring in four or five really top people and do the best I can and come back stronger, deeper and stronger.”

  Spessard had no regrets about the depth of this year’s team but said every coach looks at more as better. “Any coach wants more depth,” he said. “You’ve got good guys on the bench, but on a day like today, when the heat is there, you want to bring in people that are just as good, don’t give up anything at all. Our boys did a good job but it’s always better to have a more strength.”

  Galax advanced to play defending state champion Radford, losing 4-0.

  Galax——————————1 2—3
  Goochland———————2 0—2
  Saves: Adams (G) 5, Eby (G) 7.