By Vic Dorr, Jr.
Media General News Service

Courtney Hook’s future as a Cosby High School soccer player is bright. Her present, at the moment, is even brighter.

Hook, a sophomore forward on a team whose roster includes only two seniors, scored a pair of goals last Friday to lead Cosby’s girls to an impressive 3-0 victory over Thomas Dale in the championship game of the Central Region tournament.

“I just wanted to do something to have an impact and make a difference,” Hook said. “I wasn’t necessarily thinking about scoring. I just wanted to do something – anything – to help the seniors win. They wanted this so much. They deserved it so much.”

But score she did. Hook changed the personality of a taut contest with a goal in the 38th minute. She ran onto a through ball delivered with precision by teammate Tessa Broadwater. When Knights goalkeeper Chrissy Dowlen rushed to challenge her, Hook waited, feinted and poked a 15-yarder into the vacant net.

“Amazing feeling. Unbelievable feeling,” Hook said. “Words can’t describe it.”

The Titans (17-2-1) put their victory under lock and key by scoring twice in the first eight minutes of the second half. Region player of the year Becca Wann punched Joy Grove’s corner kick past Dowlen in the 44th minute. Hook scored again, following a scramble on the doorstep, in the 48th minute.

Cosby’s victory carried a nice prize. The Titans stayed in Richmond to face Ocean Lakes of Virginia Beach in Tuesday’s quarterfinal round of the state Group AAA tournament. Thomas Dale (17-2) traveled to Virginia Beach to face Cox.

The Titans, like Hook, may have arrived ahead of schedule. Cosby coach Roger Lattimer said he wasn’t immediately certain what to expect from a club that lost 13 seniors in 2009.

“I knew we had a lot of potential,” Lattimer said. “But I also knew we’d need great leadership and example” from Wann and Lindsay Carns, his seniors. “They’ve been huge. They’ve given us everything we could possibly have asked for.”

Cosby’s roster includes 16 first- or second-year players. Youth notwithstanding, Grove said, the Titans earned and deserved their success.

“We worked hard every day, and we played our hearts out every time we went out there,” she said. “And now …” She couldn’t suppress a smile. “… here we are.”

Vic Dorr, Jr., is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.