The checklist is back out and now the first goal is checked off. Riding a five-game winning streak, Western Albemarle, the defending Group 3A boys soccer state champions were able to complete the first leg of its title defense as the Warriors took down Spotswood 1-0 in the Conference 29 championship game held at Monticello.
“With 10 new starters this is just a totally different team,” said Western coach Milo Oakland. “They’re having to learn all this stuff on the fly and I do my best to prepare them, but once you get to this point in the year, when the game starts it’s up to them to find their own poise and composure. They found it tonight.”
While both defenses were dominant, an early fast break for the Warriors turned out to be the difference. After Gabe Nafzinger forced a turnover, Western’s Ryan Ingram was able to slip ahead of two defenders with his speed and a little nifty footwork. He worked inside to get an open look at the net 10 yards out, a shot he had little trouble finishing.
“Gabe (Nafzinger) made a great steal from Spotswood and then made a great pass to me,” Ingram said. “I was one-on-one with the goalie so I just tried to get it the back of the net.”
With the Warriors going up 1-0 just six minutes into the contest, the Trailblazers took a while to get into a rhythm going offensively. Spotswood saw one of its best opportunities of the night, a screaming shot from 30 yards out just sail high of Western keeper Cole Irvin.
“We gave them a freebie early and we couldn’t quite recover from it,” said Spotswood coach Dan Atwell. “Good teams don’t let you recover from that, and (Western) is well-coached and talented. I felt like at times we were able to do what we wanted to do, find the looks that we wanted. But we just didn’t capitalize after that.”
The second half was an evenly balanced seesaw battle. Spotswood senior Thomas Lam nearly picked up the equalizer with 28:19 left. Five minutes later Simon Parmer set up a wild play where the ball bounced bounced around three different times but none of the attempted rebound shots put the ball deep enough. With 7:37 to go, Abrey Atwell applied some heavy pressure but the Western defense held.
“We’re not the biggest team but we’re used to playing against some bigger guys so we’ll take our matchups with our center backs every game because we know what we have back there,” Oakland said. “After scoring, as it tends to happen in championship games, we slowed down and got a little too defensive and were trying to guard our goal.”
With the Warriors win over Monticello on Tuesday, the defending champs secured their Region 3A West berth and will host their quarterfinal matchup with an opponent to be determined.
“This was a big confidence booster because it was a close matchup and so this win means a lot,” Ingram said. “We knew Spotswood was a great team coming and we just held up throughout the game. The defense was great and I really think our defense is one of the best in the state.”
