It took three minutes, but once the flood gates opened for Albemarle, there was clearly very little that North Stafford was able to do. The Patriots only slightly out shot their opponent in the Group 5A North-West Region final, but when 79 percent of the shots were on net and 83 percent of those found the back of the net, not a whole lot else mattered. A strong night of shooting paired with stingy defense paved the way for Albemarle to the tune of a 15-2 victory.
“The games are so spread out right now that it’s hard to find a rhythm so we’re really stressing starting games strong,” said Albemarle coach Dave King. “We knew that North Stafford is athletic, but not a lot else so that makes the good start even more important because we just don’t know them like we do the local teams we play. The kids responded and I think we really set the tone in the beginning.”
The first three minutes of the game were relatively calm but with nine minutes to go, the scoring spree started for the Patriots as they collected three goals in three minutes. Then thanks to a goal in the final seconds of the first and a great start to the second, Albemarle strung together another 3-goal spurt in just under four minutes to make it 6-0.
“I think that’s the strongest we’ve come out in a game so far,” said Albemarle’s Ethan Bludin who led the way scoring. “All week in practice we worked on coming out strong because there had been past games where we just didn’t do that and things didn’t work out for us.”
With the game well under control, Albemarle focused on getting quality possessions and bleeding away the clock. The Patriots went into the break up 9-1, and any hopes of the Wolverines making it a contest were dashed when Albemarle scored four goals in the first five minutes of the third to make it 13-1 and earn a running clock.
“I think we’re a team that just does well with momentum,” Blundin said. “I feels like once we have it, we just keep on going.”
That allowed the Patriots to work in the bench and then more than a handful of the players that they called up from junior varsity heading into the playoffs.
“We had this last week, these guys wanted to come up and practice with us and work as hard as the other guys so that in addition to getting every varsity player some time was great,” King said. “It’s great to get everyone experience and it’s just good for the program overall going forward, getting everyone a taste.”
Defensively, Albemarle was in tune all game as it came up with 13 clears and Kyle Seago and Nemo Lesesane combined to stop nine of the 11 shots they faced in goal. Albemarle successfully killed three of it’s four penalties.
On the night, Blundin led the way with five points on three goals and two assists. Justin Moran and Quinn Garland both had two goals and an assist. Cameron Green scored twice. Conner Werner gave the Patriots five players with multi-point evenings with his goal and assist. In all, 10 different players scored goals for Albemarle and 13 walked away with at least a point.
