Jorgo Selencia protects ball from sliding Hagerstown player. Photo by Arch Scurlock

OK, there wasn’t the electricity present that there was at the beginning of the Redskins’ season when they hosted the Cowboys at FedEx Field on a recent Sunday night. And the several dozen fans who sought out the shade from nearby trees to combat the blistering hot afternoon certainly didn’t equal the 90,000-plus spectators there. Still, these differences didn’t stop the two teams from giving maximum effort as the NOVA men’s soccer team officially opened the 2010-11 NOVA athletic calendar on Aug. 30 at Howison Homestead Soccer Complex in Woodbridge against the Hagerstown Community College Hawks.

NOVA seemed to have the best of it the first half as it outshot the Hawks. But by halftime, all it had to show was a disallowed goal as the score was 0-0.

At the start of the second half, Hagerstown seemed to come out sharper, and it scored the first goal of the game in the 52^nd minute as Garrett Hajjer made a fine shot from about 25 yards straight out from the goal. Then, in the 71^st minute, a pass just in front of the NOVA goal found Hagerstown’s Andrew Fowkes who netted a short kick, making it 2-0.

NOVA did not give up as perhaps Hagerstown laid back a bit with a two-goal lead, but it was to no avail. NOVA outshot the Hawks by a small margin for the half, but never came up with a goal as Hagerstown won its second game of the year without a loss.

NOVA thus dropped its first game.

Coach Brian Robertson was pleasantly surprised by his team “standing up well and keeping up” with Hagerstown despite its goalie being not yet ready and making a few errors. But he said they needed to finish off some plays.

NOVA next played at Anne Arundel Community College near Annapolis on Sept. 2 and scored its first goal of the year, but lost 3-1.

NOVA’s third match came up quickly on Sept. 7 at the Community College of Baltimore County-Catonsville. Despite doubling its goal output, NOVA fell 3-2 in a close match, as it fell to 0-3 for the season.

This year NOVA seems to have found a good home field, a synthetic turf field — one of three — at the Howison Homestead Soccer Complex, which is operated by the Prince William County Park Authority. It is about six miles west of the Woodbridge campus on Minnieville Road. Not many soccer fields have an adjoining pasture with horses grazing on it.

Once again, the team this year has Brian Robertson as coach with Kristi Beckman assisting.

NOVA has a 12-game schedule but only three home matches. The next home match is Friday, Oct. 24 at 4:30 p.m., at Howison against Lord Fairfax Community College of Winchester. NOVA plays only two away matches in Virginia, at Purcellville and Winchester, with most of its away matches in Maryland, traveling as far as Hagerstown and La Plata.

By: Arch Scurlock

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