After watching its schools girls team win the Conference 16 soccer title with some lockdown defense, the Albemarle boys team used some offensive fireworks to power past Atlee 6-2 and make it a conference title sweep for the AHS soccer programs. It was the Patriots’ second win over the Raiders this season following a 4-0 early-season decision.
Eliya Budugure led the way with a hat trick for the Patriots and Andrew Weber, Junior Hernandez and Daniel Starr all also scored in the rout, which much like the preceding girls game saw Albemarle set the tone by dominating the first half offensively. They scored twice in the span of three minutes, beginning with Budugure’s first goal followed by Weber off an assist from Jordan Parks, giving the Patriots a 2-0 lead 20 minutes in.
“We were a little wary coming in because they had a player who didn’t play last meeting coming back,” AHS coach Jeff Balnave said. “They’re a good team — only one loss this year, to us. They were pretty banged up and not at full strength.”
The Raiders didn’t register a shot until their first goal — a nifty volley from Will Chapman off a long feed into the box in the last minute of the first half to give his team some life. But Budugure tallied his second goal 15 seconds later to give Albemarle a 3-1 lead and the momentum going into the break.
“It was certainly a team effort out there defensively, and it started with Jake [Gelnovatch] in goal running things,” Balnave said. “Our center mids won the battle against their center mids.”
Albemarle wasted little time extending its lead in the second half, with Hernandez scoring in the 42nd minute off a laser beam from just outside the box. Budugure followed that up by completing his hat trick off an assist from Brendan Moyers, and freshman Daniel Starr got into the scoring act on a breakaway in the 52nd minute to give the Patriots their largest lead at 6-1.
“Eliya was fantastic tonight,” Balnave said. “He was on fire. Junior, Brendan [Moyers], all three of them made our offense go.”
Atlee’s Joshua Kraus scored an unassisted goal in the 61st minute, but it was too little too late as Albemarle salted the game away and celebrated with the conference trophy.
The Patriots will play Thursday in the 5A North Regional tournament following a bye against an opponent to be determined.
