Brendan Moyers has been an explosive playmaker for years for Albemarle, and he proved Wednesday night he’s capable of turning a negative into a positive.
“I think he’d just gotten frustrated a little bit and he just took his frustration out on that play and scored a great goal,” said Albemarle coach Jeff Balnave.
After absorbing several knockdowns and fouls on runs against Patrick Henry-Ashland, Moyers sliced through a pair of defenders and found another gear with a perfect run and a laser of a goal. It was a highlight of a 5-0 victory in the Conference 16 semifinals against Patrick Henry that earned Albemarle a regional playoff berth and, perhaps more importantly, helped them rediscover a rhythm.
“That was an individual effort I’d say,” Balnave said. “Brendan is just a special player, he’s capable of beating as many people as he wants.”
Like most local squads, Albemarle’s routine has been dramatically altered by extensive weather issues.
“Last week it was a combination of lots of cancellation but also we had four games in five days on our schedule,” Balnave said. “So we didn’t practice much and it was either canceled or it was a game. I don’t think we were in sync against CHS and I think tonight we started to find our rhythm again.”
Albemarle took a big step toward finding that groove with an early goal from Arslan Kadirov, who scored on a gutty, gritty play in front of the net seven minutes into the match. Kadirov finished off a loose ball with a relentless effort.
“He’s a scrappy kid, he’s hungry, he can strike a ball and I think all those things combined in him finishing that goal for us early which is key,” Balnave said. “We didn’t want to go into halftime 0-0 and he gave us a little room to find our rhythm. He was the man of the match for us tonight.”
From that point on, Albemarle looked loose and ready to go, though they didn’t score again until after the break. That’s when Brandon Mahon got things going with a goal early on and Jordan Parks followed suit with a goal of his own. After Moyers scored, Guillermo Guerra notched the fifth goal for Albemarle.
Sergio Cardona, Andrew Weber, Junior Rivera-Hernandez, Griffin Coffey and Robert Palma each had assists for Albemarle.
Albemarle will take on Atlee in the Conference 16 championship Friday night at AHS. They’ve already earned a spot in the Region 5A North tournament.
