The first time cross-county rivals Albemarle and Western Albemarle faced off in girls’ soccer this season, the Patriots marched into Crozet and came away with a convincing 5-0 victory.
Friday night in a continuation of the weather-delayed rematch, the Patriots replicated that feat with another 5-0 shutout.
The two teams played eight minutes on Monday before inclement weather struck. Patriots were already ahead when the opening whistle blew thanks to a goal before the delay from Leticia Freitas, and it didn’t take long for them to extend that lead as Katherine Brady took a feed from Grace Williams and beat Western keeper Natalie Marbury to double Albemarle’s lead not even 15 minutes in.
“It’s a situation we haven’t really been in,” Albemarle head coach Amy Sherrill said. “We don’t look at the scoreboard going out there, we just focus on our goals for that game. We had some great goals scored by some new faces.”
Albemarle got more offensive fireworks after halftime. In the 53rd minute, Megan Schantz lined up a free kick 43 yards away from the goal and placed it perfectly, floating it into the top left corner of the net to extend the Patriots’ lead to 3-0. It was her first varsity goal.
AHS wasn’t done. Ten minutes later, Brady fired a corner kick toward the net and Hannah Eiden rose above the rest and finished into the back of the net. Brady’s tally with 2.6 seconds remaining completed a dominant offensive performance in which Albemarle outshot Western by a total of 11 to 2. Marbury registered three saves for the Warriors, while Albemarle’s Ayanah Tyler-Cooper had two before giving way to Catie Grebe in the final five minutes.
“To be able to get Catie some valuable minutes as a sophomore is only positive moving forward for us,” Sherrill said.
Albemarle hits the road to play Powhatan Monday at 7. Western travels to Louisa also on Monday at 7.
