In a great back-and-forth game dominated by strong defensive play, it was the first 90 seconds of the second half that determined the outcome with Western Albemarle visiting Albemarle. The Warriors endured an early offensive push from the Patriots in the first half only to return the favor in the second with Alex Brown putting home a shot to lead Western to a 1-0 win.
“They are a lot more physical than we are so I think in the beginning we were shaken by it,” said Western coach Mia Fields. “I do think my girls had a great second half. They came out composed, did a lot more passing. We played team defense, team offense and so when we got the score that gave us a little adrenaline and that helped us.”
On her birthday, Brown got her goal just 73 seconds into the second half when she caught a pass from Kate Barlow and wasted no time punching it into the cage.
“My best friend Kate, she passed me the ball and I just put it in,” Brown said. “It was a one-timer and we’ve been working on that a lot together.”
Outside of Brown’s goal, it was all about defense on both sides. Looking to spark its offensive, the Patriots moved Emily Johnson, who usually plays in goal out to play on offense. Albemarle had its best opportunities in the first ten minutes of the first half as they earned a trio of short corners but couldn’t get off an open shot. In a scramble in front of Western goal Maddi Pittman, the Patriots’ Sarah Vrhovac let loose a shot that just hit the left side of the cage, which unfortunately for Albemarle, was the best scoring chance of the night.
“You know I think (my players) did a fantastic job tonight, bottom line,” said Albemarle coach Jenn Martinelli. “They really kind of channeled the old kind of Albemarle pride… they did an amazing job of embodying our team motto which was ‘Faith in ourselves. Faith in our team,’ and they never lost faith. They fought the whole game.”
After enduring an early rush from the Patriots, the Warriors were able to mount attacks of their own to finish out the second half behind the play of Reilly Funk and Barlow. The strong finish in the first half carried over into the second and after Western had the lead, it’s defense was able to handle the rest.
Western (3-3) hosts Louisa County on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Albemarle (0-5) heads to Powhatan on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
