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Staying Steady: Western boys lacrosse beats Powhatan to win region title

Photo by Emmy Franklin

On Thursday night, Western Albemarle’s boys lacrosse team hosted Powhatan in the Region 4A Championship game. The Warriors weren’t about to let this chance that they’ve worked for slip away, as they took care of business and snagged the Region 4A crown with a 12-6 win over the Indians.

 

“It feels great, ever since the preseason workouts, it all paid off for this moment, we’ve always been thinking about holding up that trophy so it feels pretty good,” said Western’s Gray Kallen, who had three huge goals on the night.

 

Western got started fast, with Tyler Spano winning the opening faceoff, his first of 14 won faceoffs in the game. Shortly thereafter, with 10 minutes left in the first quarter, Austin Payne got the Warriors on the board to make it 1-0. But things bogged down right after that goal. The score stayed at 1-0 throughout the quarter as the Warriors leaned on their defense and that unit was relentless, with goalie Jack Zayas recording five of his eight total saves in that frame.

 

In the second quarter, Western got going offensively, with four goals in the first three minutes for the Warriors pushing the lead to 5-0.  They got goals from Payne, Quinn Reilly assisted by Will Ferguson, and Spano after winning the faceoff following Reilly’s goal. Payne ended the night with four goals and three assists.

 

“We talk to these guys about working through adversity and there’s peaks and there’s troughs and dips, and we happened to have one of those dips to start off, it’s unfortunate but it’s also one of things where you have to get up and deal with adversity,” said Warriors coach Mario Washington.

 

After that quick run the Indians were able to fight back and get on the board with two goals of their own from Brandon Palmore and Henter Blevins to make it 5-2. Palmore ended with one goal and two assists while Blevins had one goal and one assist.

 

But as soon as the adversity came, the Warriors bounced back, making it 7-2 at the half and putting up an early goal in the third to make it 8-2.

 

The Warriors needed an answer to another Powhatan run in the third. They found that answer in Kallen, whose three goals came within 34 seconds of each other.

 

“I was feeling it, after the first one I felt really hype, I had a shorty on me so I took him on and got a goal, then ended up getting another fastbreak goal, I have to give the credit to Spano there who got us the ball,” said Kallen.

 

Those three goals made it an 11-5 game with 2:24 left in the third, but the Warriors kept total control of the game this time, and never let the Indians mount another comeback attempt on their way to the region crown.

 

While they may be regional champs, the Warriors know that there’s still more work to be done next week.  They’ll host a state tournament semifinal game Tuesday evening.

 

“We’re fine-tuning things, we’re going to continue to work hard on conditioning and taking care of our bodies and making sure that everyone is well rested and prepared and mentally tough, much of lacrosse is about mental toughness, and we’ll be sure we’re ready for that,” said Washington.

 

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