The Cavaliers had plenty of chances to win this week. Wednesday's game against South County offered up two overtime periods and a 1-1 tie. Thursday's match against Annandale started out strong, but ended in a 3-1 loss.
Why the bad luck? Maybe it has to do with the last 10 minutes of play.
"The last 10 minutes of the game the team starts scaring me a little bit," said Coach Stephen Howes. "Guys are falling asleep. They need to finish the game strong and play a full 80 minutes."
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Woodson has allowed a score at the very end in the last three games.
“We played 90 minutes very hard, very intense,” Cavaliers’ head coach John McAuley said after the Wednesday game. “In the second half we were really taking it back at South County, we had several chances and just didn’t get them into the back of the net.”
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The Cavs didn’t see the back of the net until sophomore Michael Cherry came up the sideline against two Stallion defenders and delivered a beautiful cross to Chris Fanet who scored midway through the second half.
“Michael Cherry played outstanding, he’s played outstanding every game for us, he connected with Crhis Fanet who gave a great effort,” said head coach John McAuley. “Billy Metzler gave us some really dangerous minutes in there and almost got one in the second half. I’m proud of the young guys, they gave us some really great stuff tonight.”
Then, Thursday. Woodson matched up fairly well against Annandale in the first 29 minutes of the game, but after a goal by William Galdamez and another quick goal by Sergio Moya, two and half minutes later, the Cavaliers seemed a little deflated and worn down.
"We played last night as well, in an overtime game," said McAuley. "That last ten minutes [of the first half] he kinda gave out, but give them [Annandale] a lot of credit, they were very good."
The Cavaliers have been experimenting with using two goalies this season, and after the break McAuley put Carlos Canas on the field. Woodson seemed to gain a second wind and were able to control possession of the ball for the majority of the second half. Sophomore Carlos Canas, made a couple spectacular diving saves to keep Annandale from running away with the score, but gave up the clinching goal to Fredrick Nsiah with less than 18 minutes left to play. Now at 2-3-2 (1-1-1), the Cavaliers are looking for a spark to help turn things around.
"We have to forget everything that's happened and keep moving," said senior Adam Gordon. "We have a team that has a lot of potential and we really have to play our soccer game. For a lot of the game tonight we didn't do that."
