A bad weekend for division champs

Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005

With the exception of a few games rescheduled by rain, the division season is over in Montgomery County Public Schools boys soccer. Last week, three teams secured division titles. All three promptly lost over a four-day span.

In the 4A Central Division, Wootton clinched last Tuesday with a win over Magruder. The Patriots were one game away from an unbeaten division record, but fell to Walter Johnson Friday. In the 3A⁄2A⁄1A Division, Kennedy upended Rockville in the Rams’ final league game Friday, knocking Rockville back into a tie with Bethesda-Chevy Chase. But Rockville’s head-to-head win over the Barons gave it the crown.

Watkins Mill was the only team that managed to navigate its division, the 4A East⁄West, without a loss. But the Wolverines then lost to non-league Magruder Monday.

Wildcats roar back to life

Walter Johnson was humming right along until Oct. 6, when Magruder knocked it from the ranks of the unbeaten. A scoreless draw against Richard Montgomery followed five days later. In between, the Wildcats’ matchup with Wootton was postponed a week by rain.

When the Wildcats and Patriots did take the field Friday, Walter Johnson was back on form. Lucas Szabo scored twice and Carl Woock once in a 3-1 victory.

‘‘It was a great game; both teams were flying,” Wildcats coach Mike Williams said. ‘‘The guys were fired up. They felt, a little bit, the loss against Magruder. Against Richard Montgomery it was just one of those days when the ball wouldn’t go in the net. They wanted to get back to the way things were going.”

Even though the Wildcats (8-1-2 overall, 3-1-2 in the county’s 4A Central) finished just third in their division, the team’s overall record should earn it a high seed to the regional playoffs. Walter Johnson played Bethesda-Chevy Chase Tuesday, too late to be included in this edition, and faces Quince Orchard Thursday. Wins in those two games would secure the Wildcats at least the second seed.

‘‘Our squad has been playing really good all year,” Williams said. ‘‘I told the guys, if they keep working on the little things, we can go very far.”

Cavaliers knock off Rams

Rockville knew it had the head-to-head tiebreaker against B-CC, so when the Rams beat Poolesville last Tuesday, it was the division-clincher. According to Rockville coach Abdel Makhlouf, clinching a game early is what cost the Rams Friday against Kennedy.

‘‘I tried to get them up for this game, but they were so flat,” Makhlouf said. ‘‘With two days of no practice, I had no chance to preach how important this game was. ... I actually told them I was worried about this game. It means something for the playoffs.”

Instead, it was Kennedy (3-5-1 overall, 3-3 in the 3A⁄2A⁄1A Division) that came out on fire. First-half goals by sophomore Tulio Pereira and junior Lucas Burigo staked the Cavaliers to a lead, and goalie Luis Tomas, who saved a second-half penalty, made it stand up for a 2-0 win.

‘‘We’re still working on our chemistry; our communication has improved,” Kennedy coach Kristin Werdann said. ‘‘We’re stressing the little things. If we get the little things right, the big things will come.”

Rockville (10-2, 6-1 division) appears to have the big things down; Friday was the Rams’ first loss since Sept. 10 at the Wootton Tournament, a game that doesn’t count toward seeding for the 2A West regional playoffs. Makhlouf had hoped to ride the winning streak all the way to a top seed and home-field advantage against Frederick and Carroll County competition.

‘‘I wanted to end with no losses to make sure we tied for first or would be first seed,” he said. ‘‘Now, we have one loss going into Whitman. We’re 9-2 if we lose to Whitman, and I have to look at Century or Liberty.”