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Chantilly boys soccer finishes tough slate
The Chantilly boys soccer team's 4-10 overall record didn't turn many heads this season. The team's .286 winning percentage didn't inject fear into the rest of the Northern Region, and the Chargers went mostly unnoticed even within their own district.But go ahead, take a second to glance at who the Chargers have played, and then see if there's at least a nod of admiration for the job that coach Tracy Birrell's young team has done.
Including a scrimmage against Jefferson on March 3, the Chargers faced the top three district tournament seeds from both the Concorde and Patriot Districts, while squaring off with the Liberty's first, second and fourth seeds.
“The schedule was hard,” admitted Birrell, whose Chargers lost to Fairfax Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the Concorde District tournament. “There was never a break for us.”
Chantilly's only win during that nine-contest gauntlet came courtesy of a 1-0 upset at Robinson on April 24, but the Chargers' 1-8 mark against those teams will happen when your distribution of experience is that of Birrell's young group.
“I think the team did a lot of very good things this season, considering we lost 11 seniors and had five sophomores starting,” Birrell said. “We are young, we are small and we were competitive in every game except for one.”
It's hard to pick the exact game during which Birrell's team wasn't competitive, but a strong case could be made for the team's match at Robinson. If not competitive, the Chargers were downright dominant.
Led by senior defender Scott Garrison -- who's “a man among men,” according to Birrell -- Chantilly's backfield thwarted one of the Northern Region's top offensive attacks. In perhaps his finest performance, Garrison even stopped two shots from behind the team's goalkeeper, senior Seeho Lee.
Chantilly entered Tuesday's match against Fairfax with the confidence that it had already topped the Rebels during the regular season. Birrell and Co. posted a 2-0 win on April 11, but little from that victory translated into Tuesday.
“In the first half, we didn't do what we needed to do,” explained Birrell, who expressed admiration for efforts turned in by sophomore defender Kevin McBride and junior defender Arun Sundaram. “We stepped it up in the second half, but unfortunately we couldn't get the ball in the back of the net.
“I think they accomplished a lot [this season], and hopefully we learn from our mistakes and it's a step in the right direction for the future.”
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