Charlottesville has unveiled a methodical style at times this season. In the squad’s first battle with Monticello the Black Knights controlled possession and picked up a win.
But that was nothing compared to what CHS locked into against Patrick Henry Friday night in Roanoke.
“We’ve never seen a team actually play like that,” said Patrick Henry midfielder Brock Plantinga. “At first it kind of confused us.”
The unconventional approach nearly worked, and if not for a couple of tough calls and a couple of impatient decisions, CHS may have escaped with a victory. Instead, Patrick Henry survived the Black Knights, winning 9-8 Friday night in the West Central section semifinal to secure a state tournament berth.
Charlottesville drew inspiration from Maryland’s squad who flipped the script against a more-talented Johns Hopkins team last weekend in the NCAA quarterfinals. The Black Knights held the ball for incredible stretches against a Patriots squad that has a wealth of athletes and pulls from a school with nearly 1,000 more students than CHS. Facing those odds, Charlottesville decided to tilt the table back in their favor.
“We tried to have a game plan where we would possess the ball, make it look like we were trying to stall, and draw the defense at all,” said Charlottesville coach Drew Craft. “I think we had some success with it and then things just didn’t go our way in the fourth quarter — the last eight minutes.”
The Patriots’ goalie Minor Smith, who is headed to Randolph Macon next fall, also played a role in disturbing the Black Knights’ offense. Smith picked off at least three cross passes by the Black Knights to end Charlottesville possessions.
Despite that effort, Charlottesville had a one-goal advantage most of the second half, with Patrick Henry occasionally tying the game. With 9:11 to play, senior Jack McCarthy’s feed to Deon Rainey put the Black Knights up 7-6. A wild up-and-down sequence followed, with Patrick Henry’s Plantinga scoring his second goal to knot the score at 7-7. Wynter Warren followed seconds later with a thrilling one-man clear where he made three spin moves. That set the stage for Rainey’s second goal and CHS’s last.
After Kyle Privott evened the score, Patrick Henry freshman midfielder Sam Boxley broke through for the Patriots in the closing minutes to put Patrick Henry up 9-8.
Despite excellent defense from the Black Knights down the stretch — Charlottesville held prolific scoring threat Will Douthat who’s headed to Washington and Lee next fall to just one goal the entire game — the Black Knights couldn’t create enough possession opportunities to retake the lead. A couple of costly calls too, one four-second call on freshman keeper Austin Hall that seemed to come quickly and a slash call in a game where a lot of physical stick play had been allowed, hurt the Black Knights’ chances as they tried to manufacture the equalizer.
There was also a bizarre sequence after the clock ran out and Patrick Henry had celebrates where the officials put seventh tenths of a second back on the clock and gave Charlottesville the ball. But the Black Knights couldn’t create a shot from behind the goal in that amount of time.
The loss ends the incredible run for Charlottesville, who didn’t even qualify for the Jefferson District tournament last year and finished a victory away from a state tournament berth. The Black Knights also outlasted every other Central Virginia public school boys lacrosse squad.
“We didn’t even make it to districts last year so this is pretty revealing for us,” said Charlottesville’s Casey Devine, who had two goals on the night. “You can’t even put it into words, but next year we’re just going to come back harder, faster and stronger.”
