Less than 24 hours after falling to cross-county rival Albemarle Friday night, Western Albemarle’s boys lacrosse squad had to turn around and take on Covenant, the state’s No. 1-ranked team in VISAA Division II.
The Warriors, and keeper Carson Franklin in particular, proved they were up for the task, storming back from a two-goal halftime deficit to beat the Eagles 9-6.
Franklin had 17 saves while facing off against the Eagles, who he’d served as the keeper for last year during a run to the state final.
“I tried to keep those emotions out of it and that I wanted to play for my team and not against them, because you definitely want to beat your old school,” Franklin said. “I used to go to Covenant my freshman year and when I went to Covenant I wanted to beat Western really bad. I think just focusing on our guys (was important).”
He was a big reason that Covenant couldn’t seem to find the back of the net during the second half and didn’t until Drew Gaffney unleashed an incredible behind-the-head goal in the fourth that stemmed the tide but couldn’t ignite the Eagles.
“I kind of told myself at some point he’s going to pull a nasty goal on me and he got me too,” Franklin said.
The Eagles’ offense sputtered as Western stepped up the defensive pressure after the break.
“I think our offense was clicking a little in the first half, but they were shutting it off, Carson had a great game,” said Covenant coach Mike Gardiner. “I tried to make a shift out of a defense a little too quickly, we weren’t controlling the box very well and they’re a good team so they take advantage of that kind of stuff.”
On the other end of the field, the Warriors did enough offensively to complete the comeback, with Carter Sipe scoring twice, once in the third and again in the fourth to help power the comeback.
“We really just came out knowing that we really didn’t posess the ball and finish out opportunities (against Albemarle) and I think everyone did a good job of burying our shots and doing our jobs,” Sipe said. “Everyone knew what they had to do.”
Sumner Corbett, Carter Elliott (two goals) and Justin Haws also scored during the 6-1 run that lasted the entire second half. Haws came up with his critical goal off a turnover by the Eagles near the crease, scooping and firing with 4:40 left in the third quarter to put Western up 6-5. The Warriors never relinquished that lead.
Jay Gaffney led Covenant with a pair of goals while Michael Colberg had a goal and an assist. The Warriors managed to keep electric Covenant midfielder Drew Gaffney in check much of the game outside of his incredible fourth quarter goal that at first resulted in a ground ball before he picked it up and buried it in the net. Austin Hall had 17 saves in the cage for Covenant.
Western’s Corbett, Luke Reilly, Elliott and Sipe had two goals each. Dylan Curry and Amos Atwell each had two assists for the Warriors.
Western will now take on Charlottesville High Tuesday night as they step back into public school play while the Eagles will take on Liberty Christian Academy Monday before lining up with VISAA No. 2-ranked North Cross in a key clash Wednesday.
