By Phil Murphy
Senior Multimedia/Content Editor
Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area
Click the links above for all photos and videos from the Northern Region Tournament final!
Chantilly coach Melissa Bibbee and Oakton coach Brooke Alexander had nothing to talk about with their teams at halftime of the Northern Region championship.
That’s because they hadn’t even been playing for two minutes.
When play was suspended due to lightning with 1 minute, 58 seconds showing on the stadium clock at Fairfax on Friday night, the players left the field under the assumption that the game would be restarted in its entirety.
But, upon arrival at Madison on Saturday, it was confirmed that the match would restart in the 39th minute, with a Charger free kick, followed by an abbreviated halftime.
In the 43rd minute — or 4th minute, depending on calculation preference — Chantilly senior Kristen Melchiori scored the only goal of the match, lifting the Chargers over the Cougars, 1-0, for the Northern Region title.
“When we put that goal in, it kind of gave us that spark that we needed,” second-year coach Bibbee said. “It’s hard coming off a game from last night that now you have to play at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. But it’s great, my seniors definitely deserve it.”
Added Melchiori, after her ninth goals this year: “It was really strange coming from last night. We had all those interruptions and then we just have a minute on the field and then we come back and go back on again.
“But I thought we handled it well, we didn’t lose focus and we came out and scored right away.”
Melchiori’s game-winner came was birthed from a freshman duo, ironically against a side that, itself, starts six freshman.
Chantilly freshman Morgan Morris prevented a clearance by the Oakton back four. Morris played the ball in to freshman Olivia Colella, who turned and found Melchiori at the corner of the six-yard box.
“Olivia had a perfect feed right to me and I kind of turned, slid on the ground and hit it with my right foot in the far corner,” said Melchiori, whose team beat the Cougars twice this season, each by a 2-1 margin. “It’s hard to beat a team three times, so we knew they were going to come out firing and wouldn’t give up.
“We had to keep trying hard to bring them down.”
Still, it was not until Bibbee endured post-game ice shower — with an assist by Chantilly DSA Terry Brown — that the atmosphere was on par with that of a regional championship.
The start-and-stop opening, confused fans that had expected all 80 minutes and altered field dimensions at Madison opposed to Fairfax left the play somewhat rigid until Melchiori scored the only goal.
Bibbee countered the last of those three obstacles by repositioning her outside midfielders on the touchline, but no strategic adjustment could overcome the storms from Friday night and preexisting VHSL rules regarding resumption of suspended regional tournament games.
“I don’t want to blame it on the circumstances, because they were ready,” Alexander said. “Because of the breaking up of the game, not being able to finish it and Oakton had prom last night, it didn’t feel like we all imagined it would.
“That shouldn’t have been an excuse. They were ready to go and we should have been ready to go, too.”
Added Bibbee on her wary post-game celebration: “I kind of looked at my assistant, Kat [Libby], and was like, ‘We just won the region.’ It was weird. It was such a short period time, but it is what it is. I’m just glad we were able to finish them off and have a good season so far.
“We’re on to states.”
**Click here for Central Region championship results!**
Email: pmurphy@digitalsports.com
Oakton (13-4-0) 0 0 — 0
Chantilly (16-2-1) 0 1 — 1
Goals:
CH — Melchiori (43)
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