By Luke Nadkarni / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
The Albemarle boys lacrosse team began its state title defense in dominating fashion Thursday night, throttling visiting Freedom-Woodbridge 18-1 in the North/West Group semifinals.
Andrew Hogg led the Patriots’ offensive attack with five goals, while Justin Peck added three goals and two assists and Quinn Garland had two goals and four assists. In all, 11 Patriots found the back of the net on the evening.
“We had a lot of legs tonight, everyone got a chance to run,” AHS head coach Dave King said. “It’s good to see them compete and get ready for the next round.”
Albemarle raced out of the gates, leading 8-0 after one quarter before slowing down their offense to take more time off the clock. After Hogg’s second goal of the night made it 9-0 a minute into the second period, the Eagles finally got onto the scoreboard when Maxwell Frazier beat senior goalie Kyle Seago with 10:05 left in the first half for Freedom’s only tally of the game.
“We wanted to get the lead early,” King said. “Run hard, be aggressive, play team lacrosse like we try to preach. I think we did a good job of doing that.”
Garland scored for Albemarle 3:31 before halftime and Lorenz Brown added his only goal of the game three minutes later to make the margin 11-1 at the break.
The second half was more of the same from Albemarle, as Garland’s second goal of the game with 9:36 remaining made it 13-1 and invoked high school lacrosse’s running clock rule. Hogg completed his big night in the third with two goals in the span of three-and-a-half minutes during the middle stages of the third quarter, and the Patriots got goals from Peck, Joe Mallow and Ethan Blundin for the final margin.
Albemarle didn’t just dominate on the scoreboard — the Patriots also won 17 of 23 faceoffs and scooped up 43 ground balls to Freedom’s 21.
The runaway victory allowed the Patriots to give some of their younger players valuable postseason experience, which will go a long way in helping AHS defend its state title. Backup goalie Nemo Lesesane entered in the second half and registered a save, while third-stringer Alex Vidovich also made a save on a point-blank Freedom shot late in the fourth quarter.
“Coach King is really into building a program, so it really helps when you can get JV guys in there,” Hogg said. “It makes them feel good — they come to practice every day and work too.”
Albemarle will host North Stafford in the conference final Tuesday at 6 p.m.
