Albemarle’s Nyla Lewis unleashed a blast toward the left side of the Covenant goal. She wasn’t sure who it might find — she was just trying to get it in the vicinity of the cage. But she was confident whoever found it could finish it.
“I was just honestly trying to hit it, just trying to get it in,” Lewis said. “We’ve really been practicing our tips (a late redirect by another player off a drive toward the goal) in practice so I feel confident everyone on the team can tip it in. As long as you get it around the goal, I have faith that we’ll be able to get it in.”
Lewis’ drive found Lauren Hughlett’s stick and Hughlett’s one-timer redirect put the Patriots up a goal with just under 20 minutes to play and the Patriots held on from there, beating Covenant 3-2 to pick up its second big win in five days. Albemarle knocked off St. Anne’s-Belfield 2-1 on Friday.
“We came out with a positive attitude, really hoping to beat them,” Hughlett said. “It was really rewarding, we stuck with it the whole game.”
The Patriots put together a particularly strong first half, scoring twice to build a 2-0 lead before the break. Morgan Stilley assisted Anna Murray to open the scoring and Lewis connected with Hughlett for the second goal.
Covenant roared back early in the second half though, evening the score with a penalty stroke less than two minutes into the second half with Lizzy Shim finding the back of the net. Then just a couple of minutes later, Abby McCartney pushed one in on a scramble in front of the goal. Quite suddenly, Albemarle found itself tied and in danger of letting a big win slip away, but the Patriots seemed unfazed.
“We have nine seniors and they’ve been through that,” said Albemarle coach Brittany McElheny. “They know in field hockey you’re going to get scored on. We focus on not trying to be perfect but fixing what you can control.”
That composure led to the go-ahead score by Hughlett off the Lewis blast. From there, the Patriots’ defense held up, neutralizing several threats by an aggressive, dynamic Covenant offense. It helped that Albemarle tried to keep the pressure on offensively.
All three Albemarle scores came on corners, where the Patriots held a 5-2 advantage for the game against the Eagles, who are particularly tough to score on off short corners because Maddy Fagan and Lizzy Shim are quick out of the goal for Covenant. It was a marked improvement on the set piece from Friday’s win over STAB and came because that segment was an intense portion of practice in the time between the two games.
“Against Brooke Point we scored on 3 out of 5 corners as well but against STAB we didn’t even get a single corner off,” McElheny said. “The girls really brought back their focus, we harped on it all day yesterday. It’s really a testament to them being able to take a deep breath, lock into the game and execute.”
Covenant will have to bounce back quickly as the Eagles take on Fredericksburg Academy Wednesday at 5 p.m. on the road while Albemarle hosts Powhatan in a Jefferson District clash Thursday.
