Coming off of a tough loss at the hands of cross-county rival Western Albemarle, the Albemarle boys lacrosse team took out its frustration on an overmatched Mountain View squad in an 11-5 win in the Northwest Conference quarterfinals.
The final score was not indicative of how dominant Albemarle’s performance was. The Patriots led 7-0 at halftime and stretched that lead to 10-0 before Mountain View’s Tanner Van Liew put the Wildcats on the board after a mad scramble in front of the net in the final minute of the third quarter.
Much of the Wildcats’ offense came in the fourth when the Patriots pulled goalie Nemo Lesesane, who had shut down Mountain View over the first three quarters. Lesesane registered seven saves on the night before being replaced by Ryan Richardson in the fourth quarter.
“Nemo looked great tonight,” Albemarle coach Dave King said. “That was some of the best I’ve seen from him. But also, the guys in front of him played great as well. We did a good job of packing it in around the goal.”
Albemarle’s offense, likewise, did much of its damage in the first three periods. The Patriots recovered from a sloppy start to the first quarter with a 5-0 spurt in the second featuring two goals from Lorenz Brown and one each from Justin Peck, Hunter Johnson and Silas Pierce.
“Our defense played pretty well, actually,” King said. “I think we caused a bunch of turnovers. I don’t remember how we got going offensively, but we had that man-up opportunity early on.”
The Patriots continued their dominance after halftime, including Brown completing his hat trick with 2:36 to go in the period.
Mountain View finished the game on a 3-0 run. Thomas Bush led the Wildcats with two goals and an assist. Brown’s three goals led the way for the Patriots as well as two each from Johnson and Brogan Ezell. Peck had three assists for the Patriots, including on both of Johnson’s goals.
“We’ve always had a pretty balanced team, getting different things from different guys,” King said. “We’ve been fighting through a lot of injuries this season, with different lineups and a different mix of guys on the attack.”
Albemarle won 10 faceoffs to Mountain View’s eight and dominated the ground ball game to the tune of a 49-27 advantage. They outshot the Wildcats 41-24, including a 26-14 advantage in shots on goal. Mountain view goalie Dom Castelli stopped 14 of those Albemarle shots, an impressive figure considering the pressure he was under all day.
The Patriots will travel to top-seeded North Stafford in the conference semifinals on Monday with a regional berth on the line.
