Three minutes and 16 seconds into the Conference 19 championship game, Tabb had already made their statement of dominance.
Three early goals from Melissa Progar, Isabella Solaroli and Lauren Mitcham gave the Tigers a cushion they rode and extended before play was called with 12:59 left in the second half to give the Tigers a 6-0 win over Bay Rivers District rival Grafton for the conference title Thursday.
Tabb came out with the objective of setting an early tone.
“We were trying to get an advantage and take the pressure off,” Tabb coach Wendy Wilson said after the game. “We’ve really been focusing on our scoring the past two weeks since our loss.”
A veteran-laden Tigers squad was too much for the Clippers, which features seven underclassmen, to handle in the initial action.
The ball remained on Grafton’s defensive half of the field for more than 20 of the 30 first-half minutes.
Tabb carried a 5-0 lead into the second half, thanks to another laser-beam shot by Progar before she assisted junior midfielder Kara Enoch in her goal.
Progar dominated the ball for Tabb throughout the game, serving as the ignition for many of their scoring opportunities.
“She has great field vision,” Wilson said of Progar, who will play next year for the University of Iowa. “She and Taylor Omweg set up our transition.”
Grafton came out fighting in the second half.
They held the Tigers scoreless for the first 17 minutes of the period, in spite of Tabb’s firm control of the ball on Grafton’s side of the field for close to the full 17 minutes.
The final score came off a deflection, as Mitcham registered her second goal of the evening for Tabb with 12:59 left. That score made it 6-0 and ended the game.
“The first few minutes of the game are definitely an indication of how young they are,” Grafton coach Brooke Feiner said of her team. “Obviously, that wasn’t the team that played the rest of the game.”
No matter the outcome of the game, both teams knew they were headed to the regional tournament.
Tabb will host Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in the first-round game while Grafton will travel to play Midlothian High School. Both teams are eager to continue their runs through a newly designed postseason format.
“We’re just looking forward to it. It’s all new this year with alignment, so we don’t know what to expect, but we just want to come out and compete,” Wilson said.
