A tie after the first quarter, a 2-goal game at the break, but the second half was a different story. Albemarle’s a force when its offense is balanced and that’s exactly how the Patriots got the job done to take down Patrick Henry in their West Central showdown with a 14-5 win.
“Really in the third quarter we started the turn and the defense just played phenomenal,” said Albemarle coach Greg Crow. “They got our transition game going but our faceoff guys were just huge. Didn’t loose a faceoff until the second half and that was big.”
Up 6-4 going into the third quarter, the Patriots defense and midfield took over the game, winning every ground ball and forcing turnovers to create plenty of offense. Albemarle gave up just one goal in the second half, and after getting five goals in the third, went into the last 12 minutes of play up by a comfortable seven goals.
“We had a big talk at halftime and started clicking and it started to fall in place for us,” said Albemarle attackman Brenden Reece. “We were just trying to get into our rhythm, it happened in the second quarter and then we got back into it in the third so that was good.”
The fourth quarter went by quickly with the Patriots working the clock and patiently working the ball around and capitalizing on high percentage shots to ice the win with ease.
Both Reece and Matt Crist finished with 4-point efforts on hat tricks to go with their assists. Hunter Brown had a 5-point game on two goals and three assists. Zac Willis and Kevin Bernandino both had a goal and a helper. Bernandino also led the way with seven ground balls. In net, Nathaniel Gespar had nine stops and three ground balls to help bolster things on defense.
“We’re just coming out everyday playing like it’s out last and it’s working for us,” Reece said.
Albemarle moves on to face EC Glass today at 6 p.m. in Lynchburg.
