Stories

Western rises up on senior night, beats Albemarle

Photo by David Balaban

For Matthew Mullin and the rest of the Western Albemarle seniors, Friday mattered. There will be other games of course going forward as the Warriors enter postseason play and look to duplicate last year’s run to the state championship game.

 

But Friday, with archrival Albemarle in Crozet on senior night after the Warriors lost to the Patriots earlier this year? Friday mattered.

 

Western capitalized on that emotion with perhaps their most complete performance of the year in an 11-6 victory over the Patriots.

 

“Albemarle, of course cross town rivals, we lost to them earlier this year,” Mullin said. “This means a lot to us, especially going into the playoffs.”

 

Western recognized an entire pack of 13 seniors at halftime, and many of them stepped up in a huge way as the Warriors locked down Albemarle defensively and got a four-goal night from one of those seniors, Carter Elliott.

 

“You get emotional about it because you’ve got 25 guys who come out and they play hard all the time,” said Western coach Alex Whitten. “It’s fun to watch this group of seniors come out and play the way that they did tonight within the capacity of themselves. Oliver (Herndon) was just amazing, Carter was awesome, Jackson (Sours) was great, Mullin was great, (Jack) Lofreddo was great, (Luke) Reilly was great. They were all really, really good.”

 

Whitten himself has had an emotional few days, missing games for just the second time in his career with the birth of his third son earlier in the week. He returned to the sidelines after the Warriors went 1-1, losing a nailbiter with Patrick Henry.

 

“The only other game I’ve missed in my career was for my brother’s wedding in California when I was in Connecticut,” Whitten said. “It was good to be back on the field, there’s a lot going on.”

 

With Elliott pouring in four goals and John Carr Haden also notching a four-goal night, Western had enough offense to take advantage of a sterling defensive performance. The Warriors used a zone to lock down an Albemarle team that struggled with the zone a few weeks ago against Covenant. The Patriots struggled to create good looks and put the ball on the cage.

 

“It (keeps) them out of the danger zone, out of the middle and that’s kind of been an issue with us recently,” Mullin said. “The zone really helps us with that, makes them take outside shots.”

 

With the defense clicking and Jack Loffredo giving Western a 13-7 advantage on faceoffs, Albemarle found itself down 5-3 at the break. Western then held the Patriots scoreless during the third quarter before an explosive fourth quarter shut the door on Albemarle. But the Warriors had to withstand one trial during that fourth, a two-minute unreleasable penalty that appeared destined to allow the Patriots back into the game. But a stop on the defensive end followed by a shorthanded goal by Elliott and then a faceoff win on a groundball pickup by Oliver Herndon made sure that penalty didn’t change the course of the game.

 

“This game was really exciting to see how our team stepped up in adversity,” Mullin said. “I’m glad the way we’re moving toward the playoffs.”

 

Western scored five times during the final frame, including Herndon’s longstick fastbreak goal with 5:31 to play that put Western up 9-5 shortly after Ian Davis closed the gap to three goals with 6:40 to play.

 

Davis finished with a hat trick for the Patriots while Lorenz Brown had two goals and an assist and Ethan Blundin notched two assists. Justin Peck had a goal for Albemarle and Nemo Lesesane made 13 saves to help keep Albemarle within striking distance. Albemarle’s defense also made the Warriors work for the production they got, with Malcolm Meistrell and Ian Mckenney in particularly playing a physical, aggressive brand of lacrosse.

 

For Western, senior Jackson Sours made 10 saves in the cage while Herndon finished with his goal and two assists and Luke Reilly had two goals. Elliott and Haden each added an assist to their four goal efforts.

 

Both squads now start the conference playoffs next week with matchups and times to be determined.

 

Comments

comments