VIRGINIA BEACH — The defending Class 5 state boys soccer champions started their quest for back-to-back titles with a win Tuesday.
Cox, the recent Region A champion and 2022 state champion, beat Granby 4-1 in the quarterfinals of the state tournament.
“The message is simple,” Cox coach Santo Ripa said. “We’ve been here before. We know how difficult of a task it is for us to accomplish. But we also recognize it’s an opportunity. And for me, that’s all we need. And so we’re going to hunt, we’re going to chase and we’re going to try to get the repeat, and that’s what everybody wants to do.”
Cox plays the host Riverside Rams on Friday in a 1:30 p.m. semifinal in Leesburg.
The Falcons wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard, scoring just five minutes in.
Junior Josh Haggerty scored first, and senior Robbie Reynolds followed with a goal three minutes later.
Cox controlled possession for the first half, letting Granby get only one or two legitimate scoring opportunities.
While Granby was struggling to create offense in the first half, Cox had an abundance of it. The Falcons kept the Granby goalkeeper busy.
Haggerty’s second goal put Cox up 3-0 at halftime.
“Haggerty played well,” Ripa said. “He started a little slow, got into his groove a little bit as time went on. Same with Robbie — Robbie is an interesting player. He comes and goes in moments, however his hold-up play is good. Haggerty’s vision with depth is good. So they played well. We’re very happy to have them both in good form.”
The dormant Granby attack woke up briefly in the second half.
Sophomore Diddier Martinez needed only 30 seconds in the second half to get the Comets their first and only goal.
“It’s frustrating from our perspective because we go into the half with a lead — and this has been a little bit of a story for the season — we concede early in the half, and for us that’s a problem,” Ripa said. “So it’s a little frustrating from a coaching perspective. From a team perspective, it happens, we salvaged it, finished the game. However, it doesn’t taste good, that number one doesn’t look good to me. We expect more.”
Roughly 10 minutes after Martinez’s goal, Reynolds responded for Cox.
Junior Dax Booth took the ball on a breakaway and drove the ball almost the entire length of the field before crossing it to Reynolds for a 4-1 lead.
“There was a lot of space,” Reynolds said. “Dax and I link really, really well — that’s what we noticed kind of early in the season during training and during games, and now that he plays underneath me at the 10, it’s been working really well. And Josh is just class, he puts them in the net we need him to.”
Michael Sauls, [email protected], (757) 803 5755
