While Orange County was able to stop the bleeding in the second half, Albemarle simply did too much damage in the first. Three goals in a nine-minute stretch gave the Patriots more than enough to work with at home. And with the defense and midfield locking the Hornets down in the second half, Albemarle was able to cruise to a 3-0 win.
“We came out ready to play and put together some nice passing options,” said Patriots coach Jen Martinelli. “That’s really what we’ve been working on all year, trying to bring the ball from the back all the way up to the front and work well as a team doing that.”
Just under four minutes into the game, a short corner resulted in the Patriots breaking the scoreless tie. Abi Johnson shot veered towards Paige Northup who finished her own shot into the back of the cage.
“It was a corner and Paige was just right there to hit it in, otherwise it would have gone wide,” Johnson said. “It was awesome.”
Two and a half minutes later the Patriots added some early insurance with Kendall Coffman coming up on defense and capitalizing on her chance to make it 2-0.
After assisting the first goal of the night, Johnson got in on the scoring with 17 minutes to go until the break on a broken play in front of the goal,
“I took a shot first and the goalie came out and kicked it,” Johnson said. “She dove back and I was able to pull back and lift it over her and it defelected off a defenders stick to go in.”
From that point forward, Orange was able to keep the hole from getting larger, but with Albemarle playing defensive-mindedly, the Hornets were never able to develop many chances on offense.
“They just jumped on us and it was 3-0 before we ever knew it,” said Orange coach Steve Grabeel. “But you still have to keep playing no matter what the score is and I thought in the second half we played much better.”
Orange (1-9) hosts Brooke Point on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Albemarle (4-4) will travel to Massaponax on Thursday at 6 p.m.
