One short corner. That was the difference. And in the end, it was deja-vu all over again, the same play from the same player, Valerie Hajek, as Western Albemarle managed to edge Albemarle 1-0 and spoil the Patriots’ senior night with the win.
“At the end of the day it was a 50-50 game and we have a fantastic player in Valerie who just came through for us in a big way,” said Western coach Milo Oakland. “We’ll keep working, keep moving but this was good for us as we try and work to the playoffs and get our confidence up.”
While Western got off to a solid start in the first, Albemarle settled in and kept the Warriors on their heels for most of the first half, but just couldn’t earn a short corner was held to mostly shots from deep outside. In the end the two went into the break scoreless with the opportunities even.
“One play away, it was just like this the last time we played them,” said Albemarle coach Katie Robinson. “They’re a good aggressive team and we need to match that. That one play worked for them and we didn’t match it, sometimes that’s just how it happens. In the first half we were connecting passes and rewarding the people who led through the ball. We were connecting as unit in the second half, but were just getting a bit frustrated that the big play wasn’t happening.”
In the second half though, Western earned a short corner in the first minute of play. There Hajek took the outlet pass, put together a little dodge and weave move to get closer to the cage and finished off the play with the game’s only goal.
“We talked about it at the half and we came out with intensity looking to put them under pressure and try and get out ahead,” Hajek said. “We got the corner and when I got the pass, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do but when they came at me, I saw space behind and I was able to pull the move to the left, decided to hit and heard it hit the back (of the cage). It was really exciting.”
From there, things were again even, with both sides pressing as Western looked to put the game away and Albemarle looked to knot things up. Neither were able to come through, but the Warriors defense was able to come up keep the Patriots on the edge of the field and without a shot on the cage in the final five minute push.
“This defense has been so incredible all season and if you could give an MVP to a group, it’d be this defense because they make so few mistakes,” Oakland said. “And even if they do make a mistake there’s always someone there to back the play up. They’re close off the field, they are an incredible unit and we owe our season to them really.”
On the night, Albemarle out-shot western 9-8 but Western had four corners to just one for the Patriots. Both keepers, Logan Wood for Albemarle and Genevieve Repich for Western had five saves.
