Girls soccer: Cox goalie Carden looking to erase memory of state-final loss

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same … -- “If,” by Rudyard Kipling

VIRGINIA BEACH

Long after the last player and spectator left the Christopher Newport University soccer complex, Kristin Carden remained.

The keeper for the Cox girls soccer team paced and cried and ranted. She exited the venue once – only to return and repeat those things.

Last year, the team had come achingly close to its first state championship, only to fall one victory short for the second straight year. The Falcons lost 2-1 in overtime when a Lake Braddock striker placed a shot in the right corner of the cage . The 12 saves Carden was credited with weren’t good enough by one.

When the final whistle signaled the end, Carden, then a 6-foot junior whose build already resembled a college player, suddenly looked small. As the Lake Braddock players erupted in celebration, Carden folded in tears in the back of the net.

A year later, that memory is fresh for Carden, who is determined to lead the Falcons to one more trip to the state tournament – and this time finish the job. The Falcons open Eastern Region play against Churchland at 6 p.m. today at Powhatan Field .

“The first time we got to the state final – my 10th-grade year – I woke up that morning and was so excited, I didn’t know what to do with myself,” she recalled. “We got demolished. But last year, after they scored, I went up to the field and talked to the forwards and told them, 'We’ve been here before. Don’t tell me we can’t come back and score. We can do it.’ Sure enough, we came up with a goal.

“It was harder to be so close than to be completely beat altogether like we were sophomore year. It felt like our turn, but it wasn’t .”

Lake Braddock coach Liz Pike called Carden “amazing” for fighting off shots that never stopped coming – 14 in the second half alone.

Like the Kipling poem that hangs on her bedroom wall – a gift from the grandfather she refers to as the wisest man on earth – Carden has learned to deal with the good and bad of sport. That poem, she said, “is the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see before I go to bed.”

Carden has compiled a list of accomplishments in the sport she insists she was born to play. Last year’s All-Tidewater Player of the Year, Carden has been all-state the past two seasons. A gold medal with her captain’s jersey from the Disney Soccer Showcase championship decorates her wall. Carden’s Virginia Rush team won the event in December behind her 0.81 goals-against average .

Rush coach Matt Busch said he considers Carden’s size, athleticism and passion for the game critical.

“And she has a willingness to take constructive criticism with a positive attitude,” he said. “All those are natural tools that go with playing soccer at the highest level.”

Tending goal can be a lonely place behind a defense as good as Cox’s, but Carden’s mind doesn’t stray. Her game voice is in working order as soon as she slips on the jersey with the bold No. 1 in the middle.

She’s persistent – “Finish it!” “Cox, we have to finish our chances!” – and on defense she’s a traffic director, shouting instruction while making sure she’s not out of place . Her tone and manner can be misunderstood by those not as intense .

“I love it when she speaks to the defense,” senior defender Stefanie Fee said. “I thrive off her being intense.”

Carden provides her own cheering section, too, and it’s not just the parents and an avid 8-year-old stepbrother who never miss a game. Two 5-year-old twin girls for whom she baby-sits love to show off their matching glittered black T-shirts that read “Carden. No. 1.” Cox fans aren’t shy about rewarding “KK,” a nickname given to her by her grandmother – for her play in goal.

No doubt she’ll develop another bandwagon at Virginia Tech, where Carden committed as a junior with an eye on a career in sports medicine, though law is also attractive. Her ability to reason with an uncanny grit lead those close to her to believe she would be an ideal lawyer.

Consider her best-case scenario for what would be the perfect way to end her high school career: Carden would love to win the state final on penalty kicks.

She would relish the challenge and, as far as luck being part of the equation, Carden dismisses that idea entirely. The whole game, she’s soaking in the details – just in case that situation should occur .

“I’ve never lost a game in PK, going back to when I was 10,” she said.

“I’m waiting for it at Cox.”