With the way both defenses were on point, it was only going to take one chance to make the difference. There was nothing doing in the first half. The first chunk of the second was a battle between Colonial Forge forward Sydney Arnold and Albemarle goalkeeper Emily Leytham. While the Patriots offense dominated possession, Arnold pushed the envelope when given the chance and for the first 25 minutes of the second half, Leytham was every bit as aggressive cutting down the angles on the Eagles forward. But a cross from Arnold to Stephanie Hendrie in the 65th minute of the game proved to be the breaking point. Hendrie tucked in the goal off the pass to lead Forge to 1-0 win over an unbeaten Albemarle squad in the Commonwealth District championship.
“What we saw Albemarle doing in the first half was using (Lauren Truwit) to mark Arnold,” said Eagles coach Bronson Gambale. “We thought we could get an advantage by getting Arnold to work like a center in basketball, have her back them up and then slide our midfield and pop someone free. So on the goal we pushed her in and slid Hendrie in and we knew she’d get a shot on goal. Arnold’s got 24 goals this year, so their defense had to respect where she was.”
After Hendrie’s goal, Forge fell back defensively to try and preserve its lead. Albemarle had great opportunities on a pair of headers and two breakaways from Maggie Tubridy, but one of those chances went high and the others were stopped by Eagles goalkeeper Rachel Carr. A wide angle shot from Carmen Thomas looked promising but the attempt hit the side of the net.
“They are really a good physical defense,” said Albemarle coach John Hall. “They cut us off on all of our attacks. We tried really hard at the end to just get that one goal and hope to see what might happen in overtime but you’ve got to give them credit, they held out. In this league, when you win 1-0, you did something really well on defense.”
For Forge, the strategy after the goal was simple.
“All year we’ve pushed to get ahead quick and them suffocate defensively,” Gambale said. “We pride ourselves on that, pushing teams where they don’t want to be. It’s a tribute to the hard work of the defense, but also, the midfield.”
This is the second straight season where the Patriots have gone through the Commonwealth District regular season unbeaten, but the CD tournament final ended this season’s impressive streak.
“It seems like this is always where the streak ends,” Hall said. “It’s like we get to this point and just can’t get it under wraps.”
Albemarle (15-1-2) earned a home game Monday in the Northwest Region tournament quarterfinals at a time to be determined by virtue of its regular season title.
Colonial Forge (13-4-1) picked up its Northwest Region bid when it won in the CD seminfinals.
