After falling to Charlottesville for the first time in at least 10 years and then turning around a few days later and surrendering 16 goals to E.C. Glass, a revamped Western Albemarle defense needed to get in gear.
They found their stride Tuesday night in a rematch with CHS.
“That was kind of a wakeup call to us,” said Western goalie Ben Carew. “All week we’ve been stressing our defensive work.”
The Warriors rolled to a 10-5 victory as Carew piled up 13 saves in the cage. Western’s defense replaced a number of talented long poles this year including Stephen Schuler, Sam Dupont and Christian Pierce, all shutdown defenders. That’s left Carew, a junior, and the coaching staff to break in a slew of players with limited game experience. Tuesday was a big step forward.
“These guys are stepping up — they were a little shaky at first, but they’re definitely getting the hang of it,” Carew said.
The Western defense got some help from the attack’s ride, which continuously forced turnovers that Charlottesville didn’t make in the first meeting. The Black Knights struggled to put the ball in offensively and gained possession almost as infrequently, particularly during the third quarter when Charlottesville had just a single scoring chance.
“I thought our riding was huge they had a hard time clearing the ball,” said Western coach Brad Haws. “The ride is a little complicated so it takes guys a little while to learn it, but once they do it works.”
The Black Knights cut the lead to 8-5 on that lone third quarter possession with a Daniel Intolubbe-Chmil goal, but that was as close as Charlottesville got in the second half. A Justin Haws goal one of those turnovers by the Black Knights made it 9-5 and Ben Turner capped the Western scoring output with another fourth quarter score.
Turner led the Warriors with four goals on the night while senior captain Abbot Wallenborn had a hat trick with three goals. Schuyler Dickerson checked in with a pair of goals.
Chmil and James Duva led the Black Knights with two goals each.
Western will try and keep things going Friday when the Warriors host Salem at 7 p.m. while Charlottesville won’t play again until after spring break when the Black Knights host E.C. Glass April 12.
