The Albemarle boys’ lacrosse team was “good” in practice this week.
In Friday’s tilt against cross-town rival Charlottesville, it showed.
The Patriots cruised past the Black Knights 13-3, powered by an impressive eight-point performance by Jake King and a balanced scoring attack featuring six different goal scorers.
Albemarle scored the game’s first six goals and never looked back. Just over four minutes into the game, Jake King found Nolan Pitsenberger for a step-down goal from the left side that put the Patriots on the board. Pitsenberger finished with a hat trick, scoring two of his three goals in the first quarter. Ryan Katstra scored less than a minute later and then Nolan Pitsenberger scored on a dodge from behind the cage. King got his second assist on a Ryder Meistrell goal in transition off the next faceoff and the Patriots held a 4-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“We just worked really hard in practice on our offense,” Jake King said. “We had to come out here and execute it tonight and I think we did that for the most part.”
Albemarle had a significant advantage in terms of time of possession, as the Patriots won most of the faceoffs and turned the ball over much less than their opponent.
The Patriots relied heavily on screens to get open looks, scoring most of their goals off of such screens. Brock Stroud scored off of a screen a couple minutes into the second quarter to make it 5-0. Stroud finished with two goals and two assists.
Jake King got his first goal of the game off of a screen which allowed him to shoot on the run to make it 6-0.
“We’re just trying to get guys open, make some plays on and off the ball,” said Jake King.
Charlottesville got their first goal of the game on a man-up opportunity midway through the second quarter. Samuel Ewing found Grady Gilmore for a step-down goal to put the Black Knights on the board. Gilmore scored or assisted on all three of Charlottesville’s goals. Charlottesville would not score again until the final minute of the game.
Albemarle responded with three more goals and took a 9-1 lead into halftime.
Jake King added three more assists and another goal in the third quarter to finish with eight points on the evening.
“We’re still very young,” said Albemarle coach Dave King. “Jake is one of the few guys who has actually played, so it’s good for him and Nolan (Pitsenberger) to bring the young guys along.”
Albemarle largely took their foot off the gas offensively in the fourth quarter and the Black Knights scored twice in the game’s final 20 seconds, but the game was well out of reach.
Albemarle will play at Western Albemarle on Tuesday, while Charlottesville will host Monticello on Tuesday.
