Tess Lohr wasn’t bitter. Just motivated. One of Western Albemarle’s leaders, the confident, resolute junior was named second team All-Jefferson District this week and Thursday night in the district tournament title game she set out to make it clear that designation might have short-changed her impact on the Warriors this season.
Her performance certainly made her point as Lohr turned the perceived slight into a huge positive for the Warriors.
Lohr scored Western’s two goals in a 2-1 victory over archrival Monticello, including the gamewinner with just 3:13 left on the clock that ended the deadlock and eventually lifted the Warriors to another field hockey championship.
“It’s pretty amazing, I’ve been kind of slow the last couple of games,” Lohr said. “To have these two and prove that I’m first team (material) and not second team is pretty good.”
The third clash of the two programs — who could see each other again in the Region II tournament that starts next week — was the most stylistically wide open of the three. Monticello seems to have found a fresh offensive flow with Kathryn Deane’s permanent move up to varsity. The freshman assisted on Monticello’s lone goal, Schuyler Thornton’s equalizer with 17:12 to play in the contest that made the final 15 minutes an increasingly tense, back and forth battle.
“Western’s incredibly athletic and they’re highly skilled,” said Monticello coach Katie Owens. “We’re fast and I think we’re strategic and we have improved our passing.”
Monticello’s defensive effort in the first half was sterling, with several long runs by defenders to backtrack and cut off Western attacks (one by Mattie Morris was particularly impressive) as well as a lot of activity in front of the cage to prevent a cheap goal from slipping through.
“We really focused on defensive approach and the things we needed to make choices about like approach, position and stick angles,” Owens said. “We did well with that.”
But it took all of 30 seconds to erase that effort in the second half when Lohr broke through for a 1-0 lead off a pass from Olivia Hajek. Western seems to improve offensively in each outing.
“I thought in the first half we hung onto the ball a little too much,” said Western coach Mia Fields. “We dribbled too much and we needed to pass more. The girls did that and I think we had much better cutting from the forwards in the second half.”
Thornton’s equalizer set the stage for the high-octane final stretch that included near-misses from Monticello when Western’s Moira Wright made a great defensive recovery and Western when a deep run by Wright couldn’t find the net and Lohr had a near miss. Eventually though, Lohr got one too many chances and Jessie Powell’s perfect entry pass set her up for the game winner.
“Jessie definitely set me up there,” Lohr said. “I was kind of screaming for the ball. I had a burst of energy and I just wanted to smack it. Thankfully it was hard enough that it hit off the goalie’s pads and into the goal.”
Western and Monticello both advance to the Region II playoffs where they’ll both host games as Monticello takes on Liberty High while Western hosts Loudoun County with both games slated for Tuesday night.
