Gainesville/Prince William Times | princewilliamtimes.comB2 May 10-16, 2017 SPORTS

ally sticky. It just feels different. … So I have to kick it and roll it around” in the dirt.

After picking up the ball, Weatherholtz’s struck out Hish with an off-speed pitch. The Pioneers later scored a run on an error in that inning, but Os-bourn Park still led, 7-1, after scoring three times each in the first and second innings.

LaScola hit an RBI triple in the first and a three-run home run in the second. She added an infield single in the fourth inning to finish 3-for-4.

“She’s a rare combination of speed and power,” Garner said. “You saw her hit one over the fence and then beat one out that she hit to the shortstop, which is very rare.”

Going 2-for-4 were Kieara Edwards, Jordan Griffith (solo homer), Lilly Burns, Morgan Blot and Weatherholtz (one run, double, stolen base, two RBIs), while Yari Santos went 1-for-3 with two runs. Patriot starting pitcher Melanie Wark took the loss after allowing sev-en runs (five earned) on 11 hits and one walk without a strike-

out over four innings.Offensively for Patriot,

Madeleine Gillette went 1-for-1, while Anna Lonchar went 1-for-3 and Rachel Hish went 1-for-3 with one stolen base and one run as the leadoff hitter.

“That’s good setting the ta-ble,” Speaks said. “Now we’ve got to find a way to get her home more often.”

In the first inning, the Pio-neers had a pair of base runners with Hish hitting a single and Lonchar reaching on an error. In fact, all five Patriot batters made contact and put the ball in play – a rarity against Weatherholtz.

“I had a bad bullpen, so I was a little nervous,” she said of her pregame warmup. “And they just came out ready to hit.”

The time between Weath-erholtz’s bullpen session and her first pitch of the game was longer than usual because the field umpire arrived late, which pushed back the start by 22 minutes. Some of the Yellow Jackets played pat-a-cake in their dugout, while Patriot’s Gillette and Sammie Murphy used a spare softball as a make-shift football to practice their long-snapping skills.

“We have the same philos-ophy, so it is pretty cool that we can both to emphasize it to these kids,” Eric said. “Like Missy said, we want to play hard and keep it out on the field. We have pride in this school with everything we do.”My spouse, my best friend

Eric and Missy Garza don’t merely share a philosophy. They finish each other’s sentences, borrow each other’s phrases, pick up each other’s stories.

“I think us being athletes kind of drove us to each other,” Eric began.

“Because we’re so competi-tive,” Missy concluded. “We’re still competitive!”

Between the married couple, a few small side-bets have been wagered on their seasons, with dishwashing duties at stake. The Garzas have also been seen arguing on the infield at recre-ational softball, as she manned third and he played shortstop.

As kids, the two raced each other on the neighborhood play-ground. As policy academy ca-dets, they measured their shoot-ing accuracy against each other to see who was the better shot.

He has a master’s degree in criminal justice. She owns one in business administration and is working toward another in secondary education - one-up-ping her husband.

“It’s definitely competitive between me and her,” Eric said. He then dropped his voice an octave. “But we obviously don’t let it show to the kids.”

The Garza children come by it naturally. Eight-year-old Ava plays softball in the Greater Manassas Baseball League. Jace, blessed with his father’s seed, plays quarter-back and receiver at Manassas Park Middle School, as well as baseball and basketball. Ethan is an outfielder on Eric’s var-

sity squad and a guard on the hoops team.

Tyrus, 19, is a recent MPHS graduate and athlete who now serves in the Air Force. He’s playing slow-pitch softball, his parents said, while stationed stateside. There’s a mini-hoop perched behind the Garza home’s front door, and there’s usually a ballgame on TV.

Ultimately, they’re in it to-gether. When both Cougar ball clubs are in action simultane-ously, sometimes one Garza will send someone over to the other diamond for a score update.

“We look at it as one pro-gram,” Eric said as Missy nod-ded. “She doesn’t have a prob-lem yelling at my boys if they’re not hustling and I don’t have a problem yelling at her girls if they’re not hustling.”

That sort of communal re-sponsibility by Manassas Park’s athletes is a relic from the Gar-zas’ playing days they’re work-ing to rekindle as coaches.

“We learned from our coaches here. They taught us that when things get hard, you have to push through,” Missy said. “More than anything else, that’s our focus.”Let’s keep these jobs

Now that they’ve obtained the coaching jobs they’ve al-ways wanted, neither Missy nor Eric wish to leave those posts anytime soon.

“This is our retirement plan,” Missy quipped.

The Garzas believe they’ve made a lifetime of investment in their hometown.

“People call us the mayors of Manassas Park, because we know everybody. We’re very active and invested in this community, not just sports,” Eric said. “Actually, I take that back. We just can’t sit still.”

“But that’s what we were always taught,” Missy added. “Step up and take charge.”

By Jeff MalmgrenTimes Staff Writer

Battlefield’s Kayla Hamric nearly scalped a referee instead of scoring the winning goal Monday.

With about 90 seconds re-maining in the second half of a scoreless girls soccer match, Hamric controlled the ball on a throw-in near the left sideline with her back to the goal about 20 yards out. Then she quick-ly spun around and hammered the ball toward the net.

That sequence seemed to catch Patriot’s defense by sur-prise, but the center referee saw it coming. He saved his scalp by dropping to the grass, face down, as the ball dashed high over his body en route to the top-left cor-ner of the net, giving Battlefield a 1-0 victory over the Pioneers at home in Haymarket.

Perhaps he knew Hamric’s reputation.

“Kayla’s dangerous any-where from 35, 40 yards and in,” Bobcats coach Kevin Hil-ton said. “She can really strike a ball. She gets good move-ment on the ball, so it can be tough on the keeper.”

With the unpredictable flight path of a suddenly-de-flating balloon, Hamric’s ball snuck over the hands of leap-ing Patriot goalkeeper Cassidy Boyes, who earlier made some impressive stops as the Pio-neers threatened to end Battle-field’s undefeated streak.

With a 15-0 record this spring, the Bobcats have won 21 consecutive games. That in-cludes a 6-0 run at the end of last season, which culminated with Battlefield winning the Class 6A state championship for the third consecutive season.

The Bobcats, who are No. 1 in the latest USA TODAY na-tional rankings, also clinched the Conference 8 champion-ship Monday by improving to 7-0 while second-place Patriot fell to 6-2 (12-2 overall) despite the Pioneers’ No. 16 spot in the national rankings.

Hamric scored the winning goal only because left back So-phie Karas created offensive pressure along the sideline be-fore intentionally tapping the ball off a Patriot defender and out of bounds. That created a throw-in for Karas.

“I saw it in Sophie’s eyes [as] she was running to get the ball,” Harmic said. “She was so excit-ed: ‘We have to get this goal.’”

Karas’ short throw-in seemed innocuous, but she knew Hamric could score from that spot on the field.

“It’s not the first time that’s happened,” Karas said. “Once I saw Kayla, I knew it was going to be on frame.”

Earlier, Battlefield took plen-

ty of shots within 15 yards of the goal, but the Bobcats missed some badly and Boyes foiled others. The Bobcats out-shot Patriot, 26-6, with an 11-3 ad-vantage on goal, but Boyes had 10 saves, including a diving stop that pushed the ball outside of the right post with 29 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the sec-ond half and a leaping stop that propelled the ball over the cross-bar about six minutes later.

“She was absolutely phe-nomenal,” Pioneers coach Kelly Beauchamp-Payne said. “Kept us in the game.”

Boyes smothered many crosses and through balls, while center back Amber DiOrio fre-quently intercepted passes and tackled the ball away for Battle-field players in front of the goal.

“Really an excellent, excel-lent player,” Hilton said of Di-Orio. “We’re not just pushing the ball by her with speed. She’s got the pace, athleticism. She’s a good, hard 1-v-1 tackler. So we have to be a bit more creative.”

Hence their goal from 20 yards out on a throw-in.

“Keeper was on fire,” Hilton said. “We needed a goal like that.”

The Bobcats entered the match averaging 6.7 goals per game, so failing to score during a 68-minute stretch was be-yond unusual.

“My stomach was hurting,” Karas said of her nervousness. But “when I see the clock go-ing down, that’s when the most passion hits me. I know we have to score.”

Producing one goal per game is actually all the Bobcats have needed to avoid losing this sea-son. That’s because they have al-

lowed only three goals all spring thanks to a defense anchored by center backs Shannon Lee and Montana Coward, outside backs Jenna Daunt and Karas, and holding midfielder Emma Lee.

“Two imposing, physical, strong, fast center backs,” Hil-ton said of Coward and Shan-

non Lee. “And great pace on the outside with Jenna and So-phie. All great 1-v-1 defenders and tacklers; good in the air.

“It sometimes gets looked past because we put a lot of balls into the back of the net,” he said of the defense. “It’s a great back four.”

Fast forward 20 years and Garzas are still CougarsGARZAS, from Page B1

SOFTBALL, from Page B1

PHOTO BY DOUG STROUDEric and Missy Garza want their own competitive fire to take hold at MPHS. “We want to play hard and keep it out on the field. We have pride in this school with everything we do,” Eric said.

DUCK, HAMRIC’S SHOOTINGDynamic late goal lifts Battlefield girls soccer, 1-0

TIMES STAFF PHOTOS/RANDY LITZINGERKayla Hamric celebrates her game-winning goal Monday night. The Bobcats improved to 15-0 with a hard-earned 1-0 win over local rival Patriot.

Patriot’s upset bid would have been enhanced had this near-goal on a first half header by Amber DiOrio connected.

Battlefield freshman Tori Powell was one of many Bobcats maneuvering impressively up and down the field for USA TODAY’s No. 1 team Monday.

By Josh DorseySpecial to the Times

The pitch was a little low. It was also inside, but Patriot High senior Nathaniel Owens was eager to reprise his role as Eagle killer.

Coming off the bench to pinch hit in the sixth inning, Owen crushed the first pitch he saw to left field for an RBI double to score Andrew Casey. It held up as the game-winning run in Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Osbourn Eagles in Nokes-ville. Patriot improved to 15-2 with its ninth win in a row.

Two days earlier, Owens homered in a 12-1 win against Osbourn.

“Obviously what’s running through your mind is that if you get the call you have to do your job because you don’t know how many opportunities you are go-ing to have,” Owens said. “I was able to get my hands to the ball and get it down the left field line to score the winning run.”

While a shoulder injury limited Owens from playing the field Thursday, coach Josh Steinberg didn’t forget about Owens’ studly bat. “Rock

(Owens) has been swinging well. He was the right man at the right spot,” Steinberg said.

Owens is called Rock be-cause he was a reliable catcher coming up through the youth baseball ranks.

He was a rock in his one at bat. “I’ve been feeling really confident. I’ve been really feel-ing my swing lately. It was a first

pitch curveball,” Owens said.Riley Eikhoff kept Patriot in

the game with six solid innings in his second start of the season and Patrick Fyvie earned the save with a 1-2-3 seventh.

Starting pitcher Eli Powell also shined for Osbourn, ma-neuvering his way around a tough Patriot lineup and also producing two RBI singles for

both Eagles’ runs.Powell got out of two early

jams in the first two innings that both ended with a Pioneer stranded on third base before the Pioneers took a 2-0 third inning lead on Kyle Deering’s two-run homer.

“We played on Tuesday and they gave me a lot of off speed pitches,” Deering said. “So I was looking fastball and just trusting my hands on the off speed stuff. They gave me a hanging curveball up and I went deep with it.”

The Eagles closed to 2-1 in the fourth and tied it in the sixth as Rice drew a leadoff walk. Cameron Layne reached on a fielder’s choice, stole sec-ond and eventually scored on Powell’s RBI single to right.

Patriot came right back at Osbourn as Casey singled on the first pitch and advanced to second on a ground out from Will Heltibridle.

With Casey in scoring posi-tion Steinberg subbed in Ow-ens, who eagerly doubled on the first pitch for the eventual game-winning RBI.

TIMES STAFF PHOTO/RANDY LITZINGERPatriot‘s perfect Conference 8 season faced a challenge Tuesday night against local rival Battlefield.

Owens was Patriot’s ‘Rock’ last weekSenior slugger batters Osbourn twice in one week For OP, it’s 38 and counting