The William Byrd boys soccer team will have two weeks to recover from disappointing losses to the two south Roanoke County teams. The Terriers lost to Hidden Valley last Friday night, 2-0, and to Cave Spring on Tuesday of this week, 6-2, in their final games before spring break.
“Hopefully these next two weeks will shed some light on what these boys are looking to do and where they want to go this season,” said coach Matthew Guilliams. “ We don’t play again until after the break.”
Byrd and Cave Spring were tied at Cave Spring on Tuesday until about seven minutes remained in the first half. The Terriers had some miscommunication on a free kick and the Knights wound up capitalizing on it as well as adding a second goal right before the half to make it 2-0. The Knights would score twice more in the early going of the second half to make it 4-0.
“We have to learn to rally behind one another and manage our emotions and stay calm in these situations; a bit of miscommunication on the first goal led to the flood gates opening and we just never recovered,” said Guilliams.
Gavin Simpson assisted Shane McCarthy on a goal late, then Simpson would score a PK in the late stages of the game.
“We actually have yet to have a game where we didn’t out-shoot our opponent in the first half yet we’ve trailed at the break in three of our first four games,” said Guilliams. “We typically come out strong, but I certainly think we are lacking that killer instinct going forward when looking to score.”
At Hidden Valley the Titans scored 17 minutes into the first half and that proved to be enough.
“I thought we created better chances than them all night long but could not find the back of the net for anything,” said Guilliams. “It was disappointing because we knew they would come back after us from the first game when we won 3-2.”
The Terriers are 1-3 heading into the break. They won’t play again until April 10 at home against Lord Botetourt.
“We could fix a few things here and there, but I just don’t think we’ve found our identity yet,” said Guilliams.
