XENIA — Senior Adriana Winston recorded a hat trick, Amara Shepherd added a goal, and the Xenia High girls varsity soccer team claimed a 4-0 shutout win over the visiting Trotwood-Madison Rams, Sept. 27 at Doug Adams Stadium.
First-year Xenia coach Harold Delotelle said years of old habits are finally fading away for his Buccaneers team, which now has a record above .500 for the first time this season. Xenia is now 6-5-0 overall, 5-3-0 in the Greater Western Ohio Conference’s American South division.
Trotwood-Madison is now 3-8-0, 2-6-0 GWOC American South.
Since a 9-1 win over Riverside Stebbins back on Aug. 28, Xenia has won six of its last eight games.
“Tonight, I thought they played very very well. There have been times when they’ve kinda dragged themselves around. When we played Jamestown (Greeneview on Sept. 19), they didn’t play like they should and it cost them a match. But this game, the last few ball games we’ve really stepped up our effort.
“Their biggest problem is that they don’t want to change their habits. But now you can see them starting to change, and we’re getting the kind of goals that you saw tonight from them. It’s been great to see.”
Winston notched the opening score barely 10 minutes into the match. The Buccaneers senior drove deep into Rams territory from the right side, then fired off a nice right-to-left shot for the goal.
With two minutes left to play on the first half, Xenia got a free-kick opportunity in Trotwood-Madison territory, and made it count.
Senior Marissa Babb launched the free kick from 17 yards away just left of the Rams goal. The ball appeared to arch toward the right post, where Bucs teammate Amara Shepherd was standing to knock the ball in for the score.
Not 30 seconds later, Xenia’s Taylor Huffman drove deep from the left wing and collided with Rams goalkeeper Calyn Releford, who had raced out to try and stop Huffman’s momentum. The ball bounded away after the collision and Winston was on hand from the right side to collect the rebound and bash the ball in for Xenia’s third score, with 1:30 left in the half.
At the 25:10 mark of the second half, Shepherd was working a give-and-go pass to her friend and teammate Winston when she let out a scream and fell to the Adams Stadium turf. Shepherd had to be carted off the field.
Just under five minutes later, Winston turned the hat trick with her third goal of the night, this time a strong right-to-left blast for the score.
“When I see a shot that is open, I’m taking it,” Winston said. “It feels good to get my first hat trick of the season, especially since I’m a senior. That’s my sixth, seventh and eighth goals now.
Winston remained concerned about her friend, Shepherd.
“Two seasons ago, she sprained her ACL. This was the other one. I’m hoping that it’s not a serious tear. That’s one of my best friends, and I’d really hate to see her out the rest of our senior season. We don’t have that much longer to play together,” Winston said.
Both teams return to action on Monday Oct. 2. Xenia will host Kettering Fairmont for a 7 p.m. match at Adams Stadium, while Trotwood will host Fairborn at that same time.
The start of Wednesday’s game was delayed for 43 minutes due to an auto accident on U.S. Route 35 near the Smithville Road exit. Trotwood’s team bus wound up stuck in the resulting traffic jam and had to be rerouted around the accident.
