In miserably wet conditions that lasted from start to finish, it’s hard to say who had the better night, Monticello’s defense or Chase Phillips. There wasn’t any argument made by coaches or players afterwards though, because the combination of the two was enough to give the Mustangs a 9-6 victory over the defending Jefferson District champions.
“It’s a very exciting win,” said Monticello coach Matt Hicks. “Not only is it a win over a program that has had a long history of success, but it’s our first Jefferson District win. We’re very happy with the way we played.”
While the scoring was slow and back and forth in the first three quarters, things heated up in the fourth. Already up by two goals, Phillips scored his first of his three goals in the quarter just a little over a minute in to give Monticello a 6-3 lead.
Over the next seven minutes and after struggling to get shots and avoid turnovers, Western came to life and played its best lacrosse of the night. Ben Turner scored a pair of goals for the Warriors less than 30 seconds after Phillips made it a 3-goal game. Turner whittled the lead down to just one goal two minutes later. Over the next five minutes the Mustangs defense was able to contain Western and keep it’s 6-5 lead. With 3:34 to play, Phillips provided some much needed insurance to make 7-5. Teammate Sean Knightly came through with another welcome goal a minute later.
With his team’s time dwindling down, Turner made it a 2-goal game with two minutes left but there was not enough time nor cooperation on Monticello’s part for a Warriors comeback as Phillips put the game on ice with an empty net goal with 29 sceonds on the clock.
“We’re having a hard time finding our game right now,” said Western coach Brad Haws. “We’re a young team, a developing team, but we’re not starting off right. We’re not seeing the game quite so well. Monticello simply outplayed us tonight and they deserved to win.”
Monticello took a 3-2 lead in the first quarter with neither team scoring back-to-back goals. Early in the second Drew Gaffney gave the Mustangs a 4-2 lead. Drew Abernathy helped Western close the gap just before the break. Monticello scored the only goal of a tightly contest third quarter on a hard shot from Phillips.
“It feels great to come out and play like that against a team like (Western), especially since we’ve been struggling a bit as a team,” Phillips said. “We knew that we couldn’t let them get too much back into it, that whenever they scored we had to strike back.”
Defensively Monticello was able to keep Warriors star scorer Abbot Wallenborn from netting a goal. The Western senior was the focal point of the Mustangs game plan coming in, and thanks to a pair of defenders Wallenborn was held to quiet night.
“We put one of fastest slide guys, Austin Wood on him to where we could always offer help if we needed it,” Hicks said. “That was the game plan coming in and we were able to do that all night because Spencer Van Dyke did a tremendous job of guarding Abbott.”
For Monticello, Phillips led the way his 4-goal and 2-assist performance. Knightly had a pair of goals and an assist. Gaffney also finished with two goals.
Turner accounted for half of his team’s goals with a hat trick. Abernathy, Thomas Dudley, Matt Callahan accounted for the other three goals.
Western travels to St. Anne’s-Belfield on Tuesday 7 p.m.
Monticello faces Charlottesville on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
