Oak Grove nets soccer win against Bishop

MIDWAY — Oak Grove scored when opportunities arose and continued its run of strong play late in the season.The Grizzlies scored three straight goals in the first half to gain the advantage, fended off some strong play in the second half, and defeated Bishop McGuinness 4-3 in a nonconference meeting of two of the area’s top girls’ soccer teams Wednesday at Oak Grove.“We played pretty well tonight,” Oak Grove coach Kristin Bethard said.

“They did a great job tonight. They’ve been a great team this year. It’s a great dynamic and a great family.



”Victoria Lockamy scored all four goals for the Grizzlies (9-6-2), capitalizing on the team’s play through Katherine Lockamy in creating chances near the goal. The teams were well-matched — Oak Grove ranked No. 89 in the state, Bishop ranked No.

66.And the Grizzlies played well in winning their seventh in a row.“It feels amazing,” said Victoria Lockamy, a sophomore forward.

“I had a good game. My teammates got through-balls to me. We a lot of 50/50 balls as a team.

And I think we wanted it tonight.”The Villains struck first in the fourth minute, but Oak Grove answered with a flurry of scores over a 10-minute stretch to lead 3-1. First on a ball up the left side in the seventh minute, then off a pass through the middle and out wide in the 10th minute, and finally off a pass in front from the endline in the 17th minute.

Bishop twice pulled within one — scoring in the 48th minute off a short pass and finish, then in the 71st minute on a flurry near the goal. But the Grizzlies added a score in the 57th minute, running onto a ball ahead and maintaining the advantage through the teams’ back-and-forth play.“I think we realized they were playing a high back line,” Victoria Lockamy said.

“We saw the opening for through-balls. We just played it, got it through and scored.“It feels really good.

We’ve done that all season. Hopefully we can keep doing it and get some more wins. We keep getting more confidence every game.

We want to win the conference this year. We haven’t done it yet, so we want it.”Laney Heafner scored twice for the Villains (13-3) while Lilly Schultz scored once.

Bishop, which had won eight straight coming in, played a solid match in its own right — controlling the ball for stretches, creating opportunities and finishing with a 21-10 advantage in shots.And it had a couple close calls late that could’ve tied it, including a shot off the crossbar in the 76th minute, during a strong second half.“We turned our frustration around into passion,” said Villains coach Courtney Loux, in her first season.

“Our halftime talk was: ‘Hey, there’s still another 40 minutes left to play. We can have more goals in the back of the net.’“It was just us coming together as a team and realizing we can come back.

Most of our girls were like, ‘We’re a second-half team anyway.’ It takes a little bit of time for us to get together.”Heather Hamilton, who made two saves, and MacKenna Langdon, who made one save, split time in goal for Bishop.

Carmen DiFoggio made eight saves — including a handful of key stops in the closing minutes — for Oak Grove.“Carmen is everything for us,” Bethard said. “She might not get the credit -she’s not having to make many saves for us because we’re so good defensively.

But when she does make saves, they’re huge saves.”Both teams will be on spring break next week. The following week, the Grizzlies will face a pair of Mid-Piedmont 3A rivals — hosting North Davidson on April 28 and visiting Ledford on April 30.

The Villains will return to Northwest Piedmont 1A action at Piedmont Classical on April 29 and at home against N.C. Leadership on May 2.

They will also welcome Wheatmore, a regular 2A contender in recent years, on May 1..