The Mathews High School varsity soccer team began its 2017 regular season with a pair of victories over two Northern Neck foes, beating Lancaster in Friday’s season opener, 6-1, and scoring a 4-2 victory on Monday against Essex in the first home game for the Devils.

The junior varsity Devils, meanwhile, tied Essex 1-1 on Monday night.

Lancaster

With no junior varsity team at Lancaster this season, the varsity teams played in the early evening on Friday. The first half went well for Mathews with players Stuart Anderson Jr. and Kevin Jenkins securing a 3-0 lead over the Red Devils.

Lancaster rallied with multiple breakaways towards the Mathews goal, but cooperation between Jacob Maggioncalda and the strong Blue Devils’ defense blocked all attempts on the Mathews goal. Mathews led 3-0 at the half. With confidence high, the Blue Devils came out in the second half looking to apply the slaughter rule to the match by achieving a 6-0 score and ending the game early. Anderson sc...