Coaches and fans alike of Buckingham County High School’s varsity girls soccer team have yet to see much of the team during the 2018 season, but the Lady Knights have experienced the full spectrum of results so far. While other teams have played as many as 11 games, Buckingham entered this week with a 1-1-1 record.

“We don’t have a lot of games on our schedule this year, with only 10,” Lady Knights Head Coach Russell Taylor said. “Our four games against Nelson (County High School) and Park View (High School) ended up being cut right before the season. Weather has been a big factor as far as getting the games we do have scheduled in. We’ve had three games get postponed until late in the season.”

Buckingham opened the season with a 1-0 road win over Nottoway High School on March 19. The Lady Knights returned to action April 11 when they played host Randolph-Henry High School to a 1-1 tie after two overtimes. On April 17, Buckingham fell 3-1 at home to undefeated Prince Edward County High School.

“There have definitely been some bright spots in our three games so far, but I don’t have a lot of games to gauge our performance off of,” Taylor said. “We’ve played really well at moments during our three matches.”

Buckingham is aiming to follow up on a winning 2017 season in which they finished 8-7 overall, including 8-4 in the James River District.

“The 2017 season ended after our first conference playoff match against Glenvar (High School),” Taylor said. “The (Virginia High School League) ended up mixing our conference with another, so we had to play a lot tougher competition right off the bat.”

The coach foresees a difficult road in the district this season for his team. “With Prince Edward as the new powerhouse in our district and Bluestone (High School) and Goochland (High School) playing as well as past years, I think the 2018 campaign for the Lady Knights is going to be a tough one, but we’ll see how it ends up in a few weeks,” Taylor said.

Buckingham misses two major contributors from last season who graduated — Rachel Temple and Samantha Aldridge.

“These two brought a lot of control in the midfield as well as a lot of experience, which my team this year doesn’t have a ton of,” the coach said. But leading a small team of eight seniors, three freshmen and two juniors are a couple of stalwarts who Taylor has counted on for some time.

“Sarah Whittington and Macie Crotts are two seniors that are huge contributors for me,” he said. “Sarah is my lone forward and has scored all of our goals, and Macie is my last line of defense at center back. These two have been hugely important in my lineup since the girls program started in 2016, so they know how I want them to play and what to expect.”

He noted that the starting lineup includes senior goalkeeper Amanda Bryan, Crotts and senior Rebecca Branzelle as center backs, senior right back Amanda Smith, senior left back Lovely Johnson, freshman defensive midfielder Olivia Trimble, senior Anais Trejo- Parra and freshman Harleen Raj as center midfielders, freshman left midfielder Meredith DeLong-Maxey, junior right midfielder Angelina Smith and Whittington at forward.

The Lady Knights were scheduled to visit Goochland on Monday and to host Bluestone on Tuesday. They return to the pitch Wednesday, May 9, at 5 p.m. when they face Bluestone again.