Photo by David Breidenbach. Stephen Boch and Tucker Westfall close in on a Blue Devil attacker.

COLONIAL HEIGHTS — Down by two goals with a bit over 27 minutes left in the game, the Blue Devils earned a direct free kick just outside of the Colonials’ penalty box.
Needing the goal to give the team a chance, Coach Wade Nye opted to have his goal keeper, R.J. Esque, take the kick. Just call it Esque to the rescue. With nearly all of the Colonials’ defenders in a wall eight yards in front of the goal line, Esque stepped up and slammed a worm-burner into the right corner of the net to make the score 2-1.
“It was one of those things if you can get a little spark,” it might get things going, Hopewell Coach Wade Nye said. “R.J. definitely gives you that.”
Unfortunately, the Colon-ials defense continued to shut down the Blue Devils. Tony Mackin, Chase Taylor, and the rest of the crew continually made runs into the Colonials’ defensive third only to be buffeted, bounced, and kept off the goal. Wanting more firepower up top, early in the second half Nye moved Ramon Palos out of his sweeper spot on defense and up to an attacking midfield position.
Even that was not enough, as the Colonials continued to hold back the Blue Devils charges, sometimes literally. After Esque’s heroics, the Blue Devils picked up their intensity, but the Colonials seemed to have the answer for just about everything. Only once were the Blue Devils able to test Colonials keeper Joe Westfall with a serious attempt, but Westfall blocked the shot.
Then, with about seven minutes left, Nye turned to Esque again. With Esque now running the field, the Blue Devils put the Colonials on notice that they were playing for keeps.
The change on offense caused the Colonials to make changes in order to hold on for the win. With a one-goal lead and seven minutes to play, Colonials Coach McNulty felt keeping Hopewell from scoring was more important then scoring a goal.
He pulled back a striker and put him on defense. For the rest of the game, the Colonials would play with only one striker and hope they could put together a counter.
“You have to account for [Esque] quickly, and it’s hard because unlike other sports you don’t have a time out to discuss what you want to do,” McNulty said. “We had to bring a striker back. They knew they had to win this game in order to have a chance to get third place, and they were doing everything possible to get the win.”
The quick decision on defense definitely made a difference, although Esque did manage to put a bit of fear in the Colonials fans at least once. As the Colonials defense started to clear the ball one time, a Blue Devil tackled the ball and sent it up in the air and spinning toward the middle of the field. Esque appeared to be in perfect position and came down with the ball and no one between him and Westfall. But the Colonials had already pulled up and left Esque about a yard off side, stifling what would be the Blue Devils’ best last chance.
“It took us a little bit to get going. Ninety minutes last night and 80 minutes tonight is tough,” Nye said. “That’s not an excuse, but it is tough. It just makes it a bit more of a challenge. We were lagging the first 10 or 15 minutes, but after that we picked it up. But Colonial Heights played wonderful; we made a couple of mistakes and they were deadly accurate.”

Hopewell 0 1 – 1
Colonial Heights 1 1 – 2

H: Esque
CH: Barnette, Smith
Saves: Esque (H) 6; Westfall (CH) 1
Records: Hopewell 6-4 Central, 7-4-1; Colonial Heights 7-2, 9-2.

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