Matt Hicks knew a wave was coming.
Taking a lead into halftime against rival Albemarle, the boys’ lacrosse coach at Monticello warned his team of what could follow if they were not cautious.
In a matter of 132 seconds, the Patriots painfully proved just that as they bounced back to take the lead and an 11-7 victory in the West Central District showdown at Albemarle.
“They got on a nice run in the third quarter,” said Hicks, who watched his team drop to 0-2 in the district. “Albemarle has a very good team, a very talented team and I expected a push from them. We just didn’t quite push back hard enough.”
Recovering from a 5-4 deficit at halftime, Albemarle improved to 3-3 overall and 2-0 in the district with the win.
A majority of the credit – and scoring – was due to the improved play of the Patriots’ midfield in the final 24 minutes.
“The midfield is something that we have been working on,” AHS coach Greg Crow said. “Coming into the season … that is something that we knew we were thin on and they have been putting in the time in practice. They have been staying after. A couple of guys just decided that tonight was not going to happen with a loss.”
Senior midfielder Josh Calhoun opened the scoring in the third and sophomore Kevin Bernardino gave Albemarle a 6-5 lead as he found the net on an assist from Matt Crist.
Despite having suffered a wrist injury earlier in the game, Nick Pegg completed the three-goal spree as he found the net with 9:48 remaining in the third.
“We had to step up our physical intensity, good lacrosse intensity, but we needed an edge physically,” Crow said. “In the second half we showed our edge. We asserted ourselves with our hands, with our feet and our shots were way better.
“It was one of the easiest halftimes that I remember in my coaching career. There were only two things that we needed to do and that was keep shooting and be physical with our hands on defense.”
Albemarle goalie Jake Huber, who made 11 saves, was not pestered by the Monticello offense in the second half in the same fashion that he had been in the opening stanza.
“We knew what we were doing wrong,” said Huber, who faced 28 shots.
“We underestimated a team and they wanted it more the first half. We had to step it up and we had to show more heart.
“Our midfield stepped it up and our offense put it in the back of the net and our defense was more fundamentally sound in the second half.”
Monticello, having lost 9-5 earlier in the week to Charlottesville, jumped out to the quick start as junior Chase Phillips scored four goals, including the final in the first half to secure the lead at the intermission.
“We executed tonight,” Hicks said. “That was the focus of all this week. We knew we didn’t execute well against Charlottesville the other night and we left a lot on the field and we wanted to make sure we didn’t do the same thing again.
“We are getting a little better every week and I am looking forward to
seeing how we do next time against them.”
The Mustangs also got goals from Drew Gaffney, Jay Gaffney and William Snipes. Monticello goalkeeper George Van Dyke made four saves.
Hunter Brown, a sophomore, paced the AHS scoring attack with three goals.
