Senior night was weeks ago, but Albemarle’s senior-laden boys lacrosse team didn’t want Thursday to be its last showing on its home turf. The Patriots had come this far to make it to the South Zone Championship to secure a state bid next week, yet a win at home against archrival Western Albemarle would not only be a fourth straight win over the Warriors, it would give the Albemarle one last possible home game in the final four.
“As many games as we’ve played here, we didn’t want this to be our last,” said Patriots senior Matt Crist.
While Western got Albemarle off guard, it was a surge in the late second quarter up through the end of the third, a 3-minute penalty to the Warriors for an illegal stick, and plenty of turnovers forced by the Patriots thanks to their offensive pressure that paved the way for an 11-9 win.
“It was a good environment with having Western here,” said Albemarle coach David King. “It was a good lacrosse game and I’m just proud of our guys, they were a little down a bit early but really responded to play well. This is a great opponent and it’s great to have a competitive game like this. Maybe we’ll see them again.”
Three minutes into the contest, Western looked to be in good shape by building a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Dylan Curry and Clark Sipe.
“They came out and hit us in the mouth,” Crist said.
It wasn’t until 10 minutes in that Albemarle was able to get on the board when it finally broke through with Garrett Smith connecting off a pass from Hunter Brown. A buzzer-beating goal from Sipe to end the first put Western in good shape, up 3-1 heading into the second.
“We played phenomenal in the first quarter, played hard, fast and with a lot of energy,” said Western coach Alex Whitten. “We got stung on the penalty and the call is still a little bit debatable and if we turn out to be right (that the 3-minute penalty portion is no longer in place) we’ll be a bit irate… but you can’t take credit away from Albemarle because they are one of the best teams in the state and have beaten us four times now.”
The first half of the second was back-and-forth with Albemarle tying the game early in the quarter on goals from Crist and Keven Berardino in a man-up situation on the illegal stick call. But Western responded with a pair of strikes from Luke Reilly and Carter Elliot to make it 5-3 with 4:30 until halftime.
The next 15 minutes belonged to Albemarle. On a 7-1 run that started with just under three minutes to play in the second until the last seconds of the thirds, the Patriots offense took advantage of turnovers and saw it’s passing at its crispest.
“They are faster than us as a team, and so when you give the ball back to a team like that, they take advantage like a good team does,” Whitten said. “They take advantage of every opportunity you give them and so the third quarter just killed us.”
Six different Patriots scored with Zach Willis scoring twice and Crist scoring and assisting on a pair of goals to fuel the run that made it 10-6.
“I don’t know if we were just a but sluggish coming out or we’re playing a tough opponent for the fourth time, but (our guys) picked it up,” King said. “When you play a team four times it’s not about x’s and o’s, it’s about execution and doing the assignment. That message sunk in when we went down. When you have a senior class like this they can handle it.”
Western stopped the bleeding in the fourth with Curry getting his second goal of the night just under four minutes into the frame. Congnicent of the clock, Albemarle went to work on the clock with lengthy possessions and Justin Moran making it 11-7 with 3:21 to play.
Urgency set in for the Warriors, who appeared out of reach after Moran’s goal, got back-to-back goals in 30 seconds from Reilly and Steven Hearn with 1:36 to go and the game set at 11-9.
But Albemarle was able to absorb the late surge, run out the clock and set up its seniors for one last game on it’s home turf.
“I think that’s the great thing about this team, our seniors,” Crist said. “We stay composed and just play our game.”
Crist crossed the career 300-point milestone with a pair of goals and assists. Bernardino, Moran and Willis each had two goals. Brown had a goal and an assist.
“It’s really a 10-person team,” Crist said of the balance offensively. “If you focus on one of us we still have lots of guys who can score goals.”
Western’s Curry, Sipe and Reilly each had two-goal outings. Sipe also had an assist.
“I always say that a quiet bus ride home means that the kids care,” Whitten said. “This will probably be a quiet bus ride home but we get to play again… and now we’re playing for an opportunity to play this team again.”
A fifth meeting between two schools isn’t totally unusual, certainly not recently and not to the Patriots. Albemarle and Colonial Forge did so in boys soccer in 2012 between two regular season meetings and three postseason meetings with the Patriots winning the latter three contests to win a state title.
Both teams advance to the Division 5A North tournament with Albemarle hosting Loudon Valley and Western traveling to face Loudon County, both on Tuesday.
Editor’s note: Research seems to indicate that a 3-minute penalty does exist for an illegal stick with the determination made as to whether the sidewall or the pocket is causing the illegal call by the official. If it’s a sidewall issue or the stick is too long or too short, that’s a 3-minute penalty. If it’s the depth of the pocket, that’s a 1-minute infraction. It’s unclear what determination was made by the officials Thursday night.
