By Luke Nadkarni / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
The Albemarle boys lacrosse team has made its living on an intense, attack-oriented brand of lacrosse to take control of games early and pull away from their opponents, leading to blowout victories.
So when they went into the second quarter trailing 1-0 to visiting Brooke Point in the 5A North/West Group Final, you couldn’t blame the Patriots for being a little flustered.
Fortunately for AHS, they managed to wrestle the lead away from the Black Hawks during the second frame, then opened the third quarter on a run and never trailed again in a 9-7 victory.
“We’ve actually been a pretty good team at the start of most quarters,” AHS head coach Dave King said. “It was different. I wouldn’t say the kids didn’t respond, but they were hesitant. They weren’t being aggressive.”
The Patriots got three goals from Justin Peck, who finally put the Patriots on the board at 5:24 in the second quarter, and two from Justin Moran, whose tally with 2:40 left in the game gave Albemarle its most comfortable lead at 9-5.
“We didn’t really know what [Brooke Point] was like coming in, we didn’t have a scouting report,” Peck said. “But I think once we saw how they were playing, we got a little more comfortable.”
Brooke Point refused to go quietly, however, as Orlando Levins answered with a goal 14 seconds later and then fed Ryan Scott with 1:37 left to cut the lead in half and inject some worry into the Patriot faithful.
Things got even more tense with 1:22 left when Albemarle was whistled for a penalty, but the Black Hawks threw an errant pass out of bounds before even getting a look at the net. They never threatened after that, and Albemarle took home the group crown, meaning it will host the loser of the Atlee-Douglas Freeman game Tuesday at 7:30. Brooke Point will travel to that game’s winner.
“That last couple minutes, we kinda lost focus and started looking forward,” Albemarle goalie Kyle Seago said. “But then we came back, rallied, focused and got back on defense.”
Both teams started slowly, but Scott put the Black Hawks on the board first, beating Seago on an extra-man opportunity with 8:16 to go in the first. But Brooke Point would not score again for nearly 17 minutes when he tied the score at 2 with 3:32 to go before halftime. Two minutes later, Cameron Green put Albemarle in front for good when grounded a shot into the net to give the Patriots a 3-2 lead at the half.
That was the beginning of a 4-0 Albemarle run spanning the halves, featuring goals by Peck, Ian Davis and Garrett Smith. Another Peck tally was sandwiched by two Brooke Point goals, the latter coming when Seago fumbled the ball and Jack Monahan scooped it up and tossed it into the net. Levins scored barely a minute into the fourth quarter, but that was as close as the Black Hawks would get.
For the game, Seago netted 12 saves while Brooke Point’s Mike Beutel had eight. Albemarle scooped up 37 ground balls to Brooke Point’s 26 but the Black Hawks held a 13-6 advantage in faceoffs.
