By Corine Gatti

Published: April 22, 2008

By Corine Gatti
The News Virginian
STUARTS DRAFT – Pressure, pressure, and more pressure — that’s what the Cougars girls’ soccer team used to shutout Rockbridge 3-0 on Tuesday night.
“We have a great defense. Rachel Barlow, Lauren Anderson and Leigh Ann Coble played excellent defense for us,” said. Stuarts Draft coach Danielle Christian “I am lucky to have a defense like this, and we did very well. We capitalized on a lot of our defensive moves.”
At the top of the first half the Cougars’ Brooke Reynolds scored on a midfield pass from Keri Tillison giving the Cougars the early advantage. Rockbridge battled to push the pall pass the staunch defense, but Draft had a sequence of solid passes that kept it in the Wildcats’ zone.
“We had a couple of good shots, but could not drive the ball in, I feel that we earned a couple of goals,” Rockbridge coach Emily Barker said.
Barker was happy the way her team performed this year.
“This is a record year for us,” Barker said. “It’s the first time we won four games in a season. We are on a good pace, we just need to win these district games.”
Tillison was on a good pace. On a penalty kick Tillison slipped scored before the halftime break.
The home team left for the break leading 2-0. At the half, Tillison, on a pass from Rachel Barlow, dribble and fired across a diving Ashton Simmons for a 3-0 lead.
The Wildcats pressed against the home teams’ backfield and crowded Surratt, but Draft smothered its advances.
“We just played a good game, and the victory will help us going into the next game,” Tillison said. The win also gives the team some momentum. It was an important win for Draft who lost a similar game last week at Fort Defiance 1-0. They had the defense, but offense was scarce.
“We played well throughout the midfield and out forwards came through for us and scored our goals,” Christian said.
Tillison felt that her team could have done better.
“Our passing game was not as good as it usually is, but we did what we needed to do.”