Johnson scores first varsity goal as Bruins win
Advertisement
Text size: small | medium | large
By Dave Utnik
Published: September 22, 2008
Her teammates had already been on the field for 15 minutes so time was of the essence. There was no need for subtlety.
Johnson just grabbed her stick and ran — across the parking lot, through the gate, around the sideline and straight to the Bruins’ bench, where she finally paused a few seconds to catch her breath.
Then she was off and running again.
The entire afternoon had been a sprint for Johnson, who had her senior pictures taken at a por-trait studio after school and didn’t make it to last night’s game against Hylton until midway through the first half.
“Coach [Edie Pybus] knew I’d be late,” she said. “I didn’t have pictures until five and then I left my jersey at home so I had to get that and sprint over here.”
Johnson’s arrival wound up being well-timed in the end.
She’d rushed home, rushed to Hylton and then rushed to her right wing position to score the first goal of her varsity career to give her team a 1-0 victory over the Bulldogs.
“Asia has been really dedicated. It’s her senior year and she wants it to happen. She’s been really strong for me on the wing, getting the ball down field and cutting it across,” Pybus said. “I always tell her, she’s the one who starts it. Having her get one in is great because now she knows she can finish it.”
Johnson had been in the game less than a minute when the ball found her stick near the right post. There were Hylton defenders everywhere, but she found a small sliver of room in the corner of the cage and poked the ball through.
“I don’t even know. I came into the game, something happened and somehow it went into the goal,” Johnson said. “I didn’t even realize I’d made a goal. I just kind of pushed it in.
“I’m just glad I finally have a goal. I mainly try to help the team by getting the ball down field. My objective is to get the ball and hit it down there and help someone else on the team score.”
On Monday, it was Johnson’s turn. The Bruins (5-3, 2-1 Cardinal District) applied pressure most of the night and Hylton’s resilient defense — led by Jasmin Perla, Christina Wordham and Flem-ming White — kept turning them away.
At least until Johnson showed up and produced the game’s only goal with 7:45 left in the first half.
The Bulldogs are still searching for a way to score. They’ve lost back-to-back games by 1-0 mar-gins and, despite moving star junior Tess Stansbury to the offensive end, Hylton couldn’t get one past a Bruin defense that featured outstanding play from Kirsten Wilburn, Mallory Salesses, Shannon Rankin and Kristin Kent.
“We had more opportunities to score than we did against Woodbridge [on Wednesday],” Hylton coach Felicia Mascarenas said. “We worked on things during the week and it showed. Now we have to work on finishing.”
The Bruins don’t have to worry about that. They already have scoring threats in Samantha Schottler, Corinne Mullins, Kaitlin Peterson and Kim Butterfield.
Now they have Johnson, too.
“We’ve been a strong team since the beginning,” Johnson said. “I think we’re just going to get stronger.”
Post a Comment
The commenting period has ended or commenting has been deactivated for this article.
Can't find what you're looking for? Try our quick search:
