Covenant’s boys lacrosse team just wasn’t in sync against Hampton Roads Academy Wednesday afternoon.
“I think we came out a little overconfident and they gave us a punch in the mouth but we were just sloppy, I don’t know what it was,” said Covenant senior Michael Colberg. “But hopefully we got it out of our system.”
The Eagles need to, because they’ve got lacrosse left to play. It’s a pretty good sign for the Eagles that they still managed to pull out an 11-10 victory over Hampton Roads Academy, earning a spot in the state final four while overcoming one of their most frustrating games and keep their season alive.
“It was very sloppy, this is the second time this season that we’ve had a week between games and it showed,” said Covenant coach Clay Tharrington. “They looked like they were ready to play and we didn’t.”
While the general consensus from the Eagles was that they struggled, Covenant led 6-4 at the break and appeared to have overcome that early funk. But HRA surged in the third quarter with a 3-0 run after the break and held an 8-7 advantage going into the final frame.
That set the table for a series of back-and-forth goals, with Okleigh Archer tying the game at 8-8 with 6:21 left. Savraj Moore than finished the go-ahead ahead goal with 6:08 to play. The Navigators answered which set the table for Clark Gathright’s biggest play of the night.
“Clark has been working his butt off all year for us and they just started falling,” Colberg said.
Gathright battled for and then won the faceoff then spun away from an HRA defender. He quickly took off downfield, dodged a sliding defender and shot through a pair of converging defenders. With 4:20 left, Covenant regained a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Covenant pushed in one more goal, then held on, allowing HRA one goal with 1:42 left. Covenant then took a shot and set Hampton Roads up for a couple of more chances, the last of which came on a restart with 9.5 seconds left and the Eagles forced to play a man down. An HRA turnover ended the threat and in turn the game.
“When he dropped that ball over there it was just a deep breath out,” Colberg said. “It was just a sloppy game.”
Moore finished with four goals and an assist, essentially putting the Eagles on his back for sizable stretches of the game.
“He played a great game,” Tharrington said. “He plays unselfish lacrosse, he knows when to finish it when he needs to and when he’s able to. He did that for us today, he showed up.”
Craig Van Dyke finished with a hat trick while Gathright had a pair of goals. Quinn Garland scored twice and dished out an assist. Colberg had a goal and an assist. Josh Klein picked up a team-high seven groundballs for the Eagles. Covenant keeper Austin Hall finished with nine saves.
The Eagles will face North Cross in the VISAA Division II state semifinals Friday at Randolph Macon, a squad they’ve beaten twice on the season including a comfortable win in the VIC tournament.
