Yahya Mohamed knew what was about to happen from back at his spot on defense.
“I’ve seen him do that plenty of times in practice, as soon as he beat the first guy I knew what he was going to do,” Mohamed said.
Alex Pfister also knew what was going to happen and started sprinting toward the goal.
“He got past his defender and then gets the cross in and I’m just there,” Pfister said.
When Abibi Osman, the Black Knights’ left-footed striker, went to his right foot and drove down the goal line, his teammates had seen it so many times, they instinctively knew the go-ahead goal in a 3-1 victory over Chancellor in the VHSL Group 4A state semifinals was coming.
“Most people expect me to cut to my left, but they don’t realize I can dribble with my right just as well as my left,” Osman said. “Once I got to the line, Alex popped up and scored.”
Osman drove right to the Chancellor goalie’s feet and then chipped it past him to a waiting Pfister who buried it easily for what became the game-winning goal with just 4:23 to play. With an insurance goal from Evan Blow just over a minute later, Charlottesville locked up a spot in Saturday’s Group 4A state championship game.
Osman’s move was the kind of difference-maker a team needs to win the state title match, a move that was essentially indefensible. Osman pointed out that it mirrored a goal by Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema in a Champions League semifinal game. It’s also clearly a confidence-inspiring skill since Mohamed knew it was coming and knew how it would end.
“I practice taking it to my right a lot and cutting in,” Osman said. “That’s a good thing, he believes in me.”
It lifted the Black Knights to the program’s first state final appearance since 2004, when the Black Knights won the state championship. The Black Knights will get a chance to avenge its Region 4A West title game loss to Kettle Run Saturday after the Cougars outlasted Midlothian 1-0 Friday.
For a long time Friday afternoon, nearly three quarters of the game actually, Charlottesville played a little tentatively in the attacking end. That put the onus on the Black Knights’ defense to hold up and stuff the Chargers. They were up to the task, only giving up a single goal with 14:35 to play, hemming the Region 4A East champions on the back end.
“Kyle (Lehnert), Yahya, Thomas Inigo, Lucas Higgins, Daud Mohamud, they’re all great defenders and they held the fort down for us today,” Pfister said. “It was great defense.”
But after that stretch of tentativeness on offense, with 20 minutes to go, Evan Blow scored on a tremendous run and suddenly the Black Knights found their rhythm and got into a condensed shootout with the Chargers. Chancellor countered with Ruben Niamien scoring and then Blow just missed a chance with about 10 minutes to play, grabbing his head with his hands after the near-miss. Just minutes later, Osman went to work on the goalline and changed the course of the game.
While the Black Knights aren’t done yet, scoring the game-winner for Pfister was a huge pay-off.
“That’s four years of work finally paying off, right in that moment,” Pfister said. “We’re finally in the finals for states and we’re going to just push on from there.”
The Black Knights’ final push comes Saturday at 2:40 p.m. against Kettle Run.
