Bullock leads JF past Harrisonburg

FOREST — Seminole District player of the year Tim Bullock showcased some fancy footwork with his flashy orange soccer shoes, Tuesday night at home in Jefferson Forest’s 5-2 Region III quarterfinal win over Harrisonburg.

The Liberty University recruit used his technical skills and dominant left foot to score JF’s second goal after running onto a long pass from David Jackson on the left wing and one-timing the ball past Blue Streaks drawn-out goalkeeper Colin Newcity inside the right post.

Then, after Harrisonburg (10-5) tied the game at 2 with two quick counter strikes by freshman Adrian Zamora and senior Osman Velasquez in a span of three minutes, the Cavaliers (17-2) responded with three goals in less than six minutes in the final 11 minutes, each off assists from Bullock.

The first — off a beautiful left-footed serve from Bullock finished with a perfectly timed header by midfielder David Rochow from point-blank range — was the most spectacular.

“Blake Hubbard hit that 40-yard ball to Timmy over (on the left wing) and Timmy took it in and crossed it back to the back post,” Forest coach Jedd Zaring said. “That was a great team goal and comeback after they equalized, playing as well as they were and as dangerous as they are.”

Two minutes later, Bullock ran onto a long outlet pass from midfield and found Jackson making an overlapping run into the left of the box. Jackson put a great fake on Newcity and used the outside of his right foot to flick the ball into the cage from near the left end line.

Three minutes after that, Bullock sent a through pass from the left end line to Rochow who practically dribbled it into the net for a commanding three-goal lead with six minutes left.
“I just got open on the wing and the ball got out to me,” Bullock said. “I found the gaps for them and they put the ball in the net.”

Zaring had scouted Harrisonburg in its 2-1 win over Fort Defiance on Monday night, but he was still caught by surprise when Zamora blasted the first goal from deep in the left of the box and Velasquez got the equalizer on Velasquez’s grounder from a tough angle from in the right of the box past diving JF keeper Scott Zaring inside the left post.

“Clearly I was concerned because they are so technical,” he said. “We’d done a good job with them up until that point when they basically diced the whole team. I felt like we had good matchups on the flank and eventually that’s what happened.”

“We kind of let down our intensity a little after we got our second goal, but we did good to battle back,” Bullock added.

“Our guys played an extremely tough game tonight,” Harrisonburg coach Ted Erickson said. “But Jefferson Forest’s a great team. They work very hard.”

The Cavaliers travel to William Byrd on Thursday to face Blue Ridge champion Northside at 5:30 p.m. with a Group AA state berth on the line.

“We scrimmaged them and beat them 3-nil, but that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” Zaring said.

“We’re ready to take on any challenge,” Bullock added.