St. Anne’s-Belfield’s Andrew Crockett has rounded into form of late, finishing around the cage in much the same form as he did last season for the Saints as just a sophomore. The junior attackman ripped off five goals in two of STAB’s two games, including the Saints’ 15-7 state quarterfinal victory over rival Woodberry Forest Tuesday night.
“It really has been great to see that,” said STAB coach Bo Perriello. “It’s been a little bit of a progression since that big hit he took early in the year, but he’s really back to strong form.”
Crocket and Owen Van Arsdale paced the scoring, with Van Arsdale also registering five goals to go with his three assists. Chapin Speidel got in on the action with two goals and two assists too.
“I get really nervous with playoff games, and having a quality opponent like Woodberry, we knew we were going to be pressed,” Perriello said. “So we wanted to get the offense going early.”
St. Anne’s was particularly dominant during the second and third quarters, transforming a hotly contested matchup into a bit of a runaway with a 6-0 run that gave STAB a nine-goal lead.
Austin Geisler was all over the place all night, kickstarting clears with his speed and coming up with eight total saves, including a pair of particularly acrobatic ones.
“Austin had a couple of amazing saves at different points,” said Woodberry coach Brian Hemming. “One he’s laying on his back and just puts his stick up and another one he’s like the flying burrito going across the cage doing something crazy.”
Woodberry struggled to get into a groove offensively despite Carlson Milikin and Hatcher Williams scoring back-to-back goals in the first half that cut STAB’s lead to 5-3. The Tigers couldn’t string anything together after that spurt.
“Obviously they’ve got a very good defense, you’ve got Charles Schreck in there,” Hemming said. “We could never really get in a rhythm.”
Griffin Burke led the Tigers with two goals while Mark Monroe and Williams had a goal each, a sub-standard output for the Tigers’ attack unit.
The Saints advance on to lock up with the winner of Episcopal and Paul VI in the state semifinals in Virginia Beach on Friday while Woodberry’s season ends.
