All Demons on senior night

WASHINGTON — The good times were rolling for the Washington soccer teams on Monday night in a Southeast Conference doubleheader against Fairfield. On senior night, the Demons pulled a double shut out, winning the girls’ game 4-0 and the boys’ game 3-0.

Fairfield came to play early in the girls’ game. The heavily favored Demons were held to just one goal until 5:22 left in the half as the Trojans gave them everything they could handle.

Washington’s early goal went to Audrey Anderson, who was just returning from injury. The sophomore buzzed out past Fairfield keeper Kiara Bickham for an early advantage.

“It always takes players some time to get their rhythm going,” said Demon head coach Steven Caulk. “ They’re a pretty physical team, so she had to get back into the swing of things.”

With 5:22 left in the first half, Alex Murphy found a loose ball and sent it into the net. Greta Rothe put one in a short time later and it was 3-0 at the half.

Rothe scored her second of the game early in the second half. The senior midfielder was pushed up into the scoring zone for most of the night as Washington tried to make up for the absence of sophomore Giselle Marcelino, who leads the team in goals.

“I see it as a cool opportunity,” said Rothe. “If I see that I have green grass in front of me, I’m going to take it, but if there’s a pass to make with runners on the wings, I’m going to pass that ball.”

The girls’ game was marred by an injury early in the game to Fairfield senior Delaney Breen, who went down for an extended period of time early in the first half and did not return.

“That definitely put a damper on the game,” Rothe said. “That’s a very scary situation.”

The Washington boys had all three goals come from seniors. Fabian DeJesus scored the first, curving one past the left post early in the second half. Cole Anderson found the next two.

“Cole really wanted the win tonight. It showed,” said Washington boys coach Sally Hart. “It’s cool that on senior night we got three goals, and they all came from seniors.”

Anderson only had half of a game to get his goals. He spent the first half in net before moving up to the forward position in the second period.

“It felt really good, coming out from goal and being able to put some forward,” Anderson said. “It was a lot of good passing and a good opportunity to get a shot on.”

It was another tough result for the Trojan boys, who have now went three games in a row without scoring a goal, a rarity for Coach Felistio Guezimane’s program. Guezimane says his team still is trying to find the key to unlock the Trojan offense.

“That’s the million dollar question,” Guezimane said. “We work on this stuff at practice, but for some reason we just kind of shoot ourselves in the foot.”

The Washington girls are now 8-4 overall and 4-4 in conference play. The Demon boys are 9-2 and 6-2. Fairfield fell to 0-10 and 0-6 on the girls’ side, and 2-7 and 2-6 on the boys’ side.