J.P. Kanashiro goes horizontal after an aggressive challenge by a Howard CC defender.

In perhaps its best game of the year, on the afternoon of Oct. 19 at Woodbridge’s Howison Homestead Park, NOVA lost a closely contested match to the National Junior College Athletic Association powerhouse Howard Community College Dragons.

The teams fought to a 0-0 stalemate at halftime, with there being few scoring chances. Perhaps the highlight for Howard was when one of their players, on a throw-in from the side at the NOVA end of the field, doing a somersault and then launching a long pass toward the front of the NOVA, though all to no avail.

In the second half, Howard inserted a new goalkeeper and then scored to take a 1-0 lead. NOVA had its best chance at evening the score at the 17-minute mark, but Midfielder Cesar Guevera Mendieta’s header in front of the goal soared over the goal.

In the 39^th minute, Howard gained the ball at mid-field, and a Howard player eluded two NOVA defenders and buried a nice 25-yard shot from the left side of the goal into the bottom right of the goal to make it 2-0.

NOVA threatened to score several times in the remaining minutes to no avail.

With the loss, NOVA’s record drops to 5-4 after five straight wins. Howard upped its record to a strong 14-2-1 for the year.

Coach Brian Robertson remarked after the game, “We played a real strong NJCAA team and in the first half. We played a perfect game, and we dominated. In the second half we just made one or two errors and they got a goal, and by that time things seemed to break up a little. But technically we were better than the other team. I think we are a very strong team. The Howard coach thinks we have a lot of talent.”

Earlier, NOVA had run its winning streak to five with two wins. First it shut out Frederick Community College on Oct. 11 in Frederick, 4-0. Then, two days later, the team again traveled up north and shut out Hagerstown Community College — 3-0, a team that NOVA had lost to in its first game.

NOVA’s final game was a rematch on Oct. 22 in Winchester versus Lord Fairfax Community College, whom they defeated easily earlier in the year at home.

By: Arch Scurlock

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