St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes at St. Anne’s-Belfield boys lacrosse, 6:30 p.m. Friday
The basics: If you don’t remember the story of last year’s edition of the St. Anne’s-Belfield boys lacrosse team, here’s a quick recap. The Saints dropped a series of close games during the regular season, true heartbreakers. That forced them into a No. 6 seed in the state tournament and the Saints promptly reeled off three straight victories, riding a hot goalie in Eric Buhle to a state title. One of those close regular season losses came at the hands STAB’s modern archrival, St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes, a painful 4-3 decision in early April. STAB got a chance to avenge it in the state quarterfinals, and beat SSSA 9-5 to kickstart that magical run. A year later, and with a lot of new faces on defense, in the cage and on faceoffs, STAB hosts SSSA in what always serves as a major measuring stick game for both programs. The Saints are loaded with talent offensively, boasting one of the deepest and most talented attacks in recent memory Princeton pledges Phillip Robertson and Jack Schultz and Johns Hopkins commits Joe Robertson and Connor Shellenberger. That’s just the tip of the spear too, as outside of that wealth of attackers are midfielders Josh Reiss and Javon Johnson, a pair of Division I commits who are stars in their own rights and give STAB a ton of punching power. SSSA counters with five Division I commits including sophomore Austin Stewart, a Denver pledge and senior Benjamin Martin who’s headed to Dartmouth. STAB faces super-talented rosters each week, so that’s nothing new, but that also means letting your guard down is rarely, if ever, an option as SSSA can make things happen.
Key matchup: STAB’s new faceoff unit takes on SSSA’s group. Austin Park is enough of a significant loss on faceoffs, but the Saints are also working with some new faces on the wings with the graduation of Rob Schotta. Getting wins at midfield and letting the STAB offense go to work would be a big leg up for the Saints in a tough matchup. Either Garrison Kedda (St. Joe’s commit) or Andrew Tyeryar (Michigan pledge who’s a freshman) could be the point man for SSSA.
Who to watch: STAB’s defense. The Saints’ replace few key defenders from last year’s team, including longtime LSM Schotta, Gideon Elron and defensive midfielder Lee Parkhill who was a lockdown shortstick defender. They’ve got seniors Pierce Bower and Kareem Johnson back and both are awfully good, but the other pieces are still coming together. Does that unit take a big step forward this week in the rivalry clash?
The line: STAB by 1. Odds are good this one will be tight as last year’s battle. The Saints first have to battle Loyola Blakefield Wednesday, another tough opponent that’s part of STAB’s usual super-challenging schedule where every outing is essentially a battle. But no matter what that result is, the Saints are a good bet to be fired up when Friday rolls around.
Four more to watch:
Albemarle versus Western baseball, Tuesday
The Patriots are a vastly improved team despite still being quite young. In the Warriors they’ll get a team that has won more games in the Jefferson District than any other over the past three seasons. It’s easy to make the argument that Albemarle might be where Western was in 2012 before the Warriors returned to the top of the Jefferson District standings with so many underclassmen peppered around the field, including sophomores Ryan Porter and Andrew Porter. About those Warriors — they’ve played a tough schedule to start the year and bounced back from a 1-3 start to beat Spotswood to start their week. While Western leans on its three senior captains, the Warriors are looking for big contributions from their youth too. Derek Domecq and Sam James have provided that early on. A close game would be a great sign for the depth of the JD.
Western at Monticello girls lacrosse, Wednesday
The Warriors dropped a tough one in overtime to Albemarle Friday night and now they play another tough Jefferson District foe in the Mustangs. Western’s top notch defenders like Hannah Curry and midfielder Kate Snyder face a tall task against the Mustangs’ one-two scoring punch of Paige McGlothlin and Summer Larese, The Warriors counter with a lot of scoring punch of their own, but this is the kind of game where an unexpected performance could carry the day if strength offsets strength.
Fork Union at Covenant baseball, Thursday
The Blue Devils get a home-and-away this week with Prep League rival Woodberry Forest, but sandwiched between those two games is a meeting with a VISAA Division 2 Covenant team that is off to a great start. Both these squads are rounding into form, both have matured from the awfully young rosters they trotted out two seasons ago. Fork Union’s Adam Hackenberg and Jacob Grabeel have been leaders for the Blue Devils since their freshmen year. Covenant’s Mason Mitchell, a freshman, has been red hot at the plate while senior Matt Shobe has been lights out on the mound so far. This is a great battle between a pair of schools ready to make an impact in May in their respective playoffs.
Albemarle at Orange Softball, Friday
The Patriots have gotten off to a solid start to the year. Wins over Massaponax and Liberty Christian Academy have shown that the offense is vastly improved from last year with 22 runs scored in those two games alone and 35 altogether in the first four games of the year — life is good when you’re averaging almost nine runs per outing with Khouri Turner and Brooke McAllister on point. Orange comes in to this rivalry after a huge week beating their out-of-district rivals, starting with a 3-0 win over Madison County and then a huge 9-8 comeback win over Monroe a week after falling to the Dragons on the road. Courtney Wright’s pitching and offense from Hannah Jones and Tearra Goode should give the Patriots quite the challenge.
Team on the Rise: Goochland baseball
So how do you shake off your James River District opening loss to Randolph-Henry? Try a 28-3 pounding of Prince Edward two days later. The Bulldogs get a week off for spring break and the win over the Eagles is important because a 2-0 loss to a private school powerhouse in the form of VISAA Division 1’s St. Christopher’s shows that this Goochland team has the talent on the mound and defensively to play solid baseball. It’s 28-run win over Prince Edward shows that the bats are starting to come around too. The loss to the Statesmen could well prove to be one of those rallying point games. With a road trip to arch rival Buckingham County waiting next week, it will be quite interesting to see what the Bulldogs look like after their week off.
