You’ll have to forgive Kevin Bernardino if he sounds more humble than he should. His game winning goal with four seconds left in overtime of the Division 5A championship against Loudoun County stole the show. Before he gave Albemarle its first ever state title, he watched fellow senior Matt Crist put on a spectacular performace, only then to see the Patriots defense come up with two big stops in overtime. It wasn’t until there was 10 seconds left in OT after he scooped up a ground ball that Bernadino was able to make his impact on the game to push Albemarle to a 11-10 come-from-behind win.
“I checked the clock and saw it was running down so I just tried to make a play for my team,” Bernardino said. “But the defense, (Matt Crist) and plenty of guys on offense just carried us through this game. I was lucky enough to make the play at the end of the game. But give our defense the credit (for setting up the last possession).”
Albemarle had the ball after surviving a pair of Loudoun County possession in overtime. With just under thirty seconds left the Patriots got an open shooting lane, but couldn’t find the back of the net. However, Bernardino was able to scoop up the ball that bounced loose. The only problem was there was just a few seconds left in overtime and he was behind the net. Bernardino wrapped around, took the only shot he could by aiming for the top shelf of the far side of the goal. It got through and the celebrations began as the Patriots completed a come-from-behind win in overtime to edge the Raiders 11-10.
“That’s a senior, (Bernardino), who came up and made a play and I think it sums up that game, that whole season for this group — that’s a special, special group of seniors that are walking out the door and leaving us our first state championship in lacrosse,” said Albemarle coach Dave King.
The story of game before overtime that was Matt Crist willing the Patriots out of regulation.
“What you saw from Matt Crist has to be one of the better performances in the history of state championship games,” King said. “Matt Crist has been under rated his whole career somehow. No one on this team underestimates him.”
And as such, when Bernardino scored, Albemarle lost its mind, its fans too as they rushed the field, meeting the goal scorer for a second and simply mobbing Crist immediately after. You could call it one of the best performances in the state tournament period as between this win over Loundoun County and the state semifinal win against Loudoun Valley, Crist had 11 of his team’s 21 goals.
On Sunday, he had six, despite going up against the Raiders’ top long pole in Michael Rexrode who is Rutgers bound and an All-American. Rexrode was all over Crist all game, visibly roughing him up twice. But the Patriots senior relied on his teammates to set screens and free him of the man-on-man defense. When Crist was free, he scored and it was as simple as that.
“He was a great defender and stuck with me all game and really all my goals were my teammates making plays for me,” Crist said. “It was a lot of fun playing against (Rexrode). We were trying to get a switch off him because he was obviously dominant for three quarters… when we got the switch we were able to score and that’s just Coach King designing the play up in crunch time. Props to him.”
Getting through the fourth to overtime was the challenge as Albemarle trailed for the vast majority of the game, most of the time by two goals. The Patriots had turnover troubles early on to make matters worst. After a costly turnover late put Loudoun County up 8-5 late in the third, Albemarle got a boost of momentum from Zach Willis who scored off a rebound to make it a 2-goal game. But Crist then opened the fourth quarter with a pair of goals to tie things up at 8-8.
“I think we just have so many guys that know how to win,” Crist said. “From February to today, this was what we were working for.”
Loudoun responded by taking a 10-8 advantage on goals from Kevin Rogers and Sean Rogers, and then going to work on the clock. Inside of four minutes, after a turnover, the Patriots quickly made good of a possession with Justin Moran scoring on a diving play to cut the deficit to one. On the next Albemarle possession, Crist struck again, tying the game up at 10-10 with 2:38 to play.
Both teams would get a possession to finish the fourth, but in both cases the defenses rose to the occasion. That carried over into sudden death overtime where Albemarle was able to come up with a stop when the Raiders won the faceoff. Albemarle then got the ball just a few feet away from the crease, but Loudoun’s defense broke up the play. After the Patriots forced a turnover, they got the ball with just under a minute to go to set up the amazing finish, one that Crist particularly enjoyed, as much or more as Bernardino enjoyed Crist’s first four quarters.
“Kevin Bernardino put the team on his back there and just won us a state championship,” Crist said.
Crist’s six goals led all scorers. Bernardino, Moran, Willis and Ian Davis each had a goal.
The Patriots only lead in regulation came in the first when the Raiders scored on themselves on a broken clear. Loudoun took a 3-1 lead shortly thereafter and went into the break at the half up 5-3. Sean Rogers had three goals to lead the Raiders in scoring.
Albemarle finishes the season at 20-1, and most importantly to this group of graduates, as state champs.
