The Gazette: QO girls soccer tops Sherwood, 2-0

Prentice, Margelos find the net as Cougars rebound from loss

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008 by Jennifer Beekman | Staff Writer

The Quince Orchard girls soccer team bounced back from Saturday's 1-0 loss to Whitman with a 2-0 win at Sherwood Tuesday night.

The victory meant more to the Cougars (2-1-0) than just a notch in the win column; it avenged two consecutive regular-season losses to the Warriors (1-1-0).

"Sherwood has kind of been a team that's had our number in the regular season," Quince Orchard coach Peg Keiller said. "We definitely wanted to come in and make sure that didn't happen again…

"We were really unhappy with our performance against Whitman and we wanted to go back to playing the way we normally do. We like to do a lot of quick combinations and work the ball around to spring people forward on runs."

Quince Orchard imposed itself quickly with two first-half goals. Junior Leah Prentice put the Cougars on top, 1-0, in the 12th minute, finishing a cross from sophomore midfielder Yvonne Latour for her second goal of 2008.

Junior forward Ele Margelos finished another beauty from Latour in the 14th minute to increase Quince Orchard's lead to 2-0. It was her first goal of the year, after scoring seven each in her freshman and sophomore seasons.

The Cougars employed their quick-touch style of offense efficiently to keep the young Warriors under constant pressure. Quince Orchard controlled the pace of Tuesday's contest effectively and maintained possession on offense for a good portion of the evening.

Quince Orchard tallied nearly 30 shots on goal, 17 of them in the second half, when the Cougars really took control.

The Warriors, who thrive off a more power-based attack, did create some scoring chances of their own. But they were unable to convert.

Third-year starting goalie, junior Rachel Lewis, kept Sherwood close with 15 astounding saves. She drew gasps from the crowd after saving two attempts from Latour and Margelos in the second half from within two yards of her face.

"[Quince Orchard] passes the ball extremely well," Sherwood coach Frank Weaver said. "They played a lot more aggressively than we did. But if a loss can be good, that was a good loss. We can learn a lot from it. It's early in the season and it was against a good team."