By Luke Nadkarni / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
In the two regular-season meetings between Monticello and Charlottesville’s boys lacrosse teams, the margin of victory was one goal in each game with each team winning on the other’s home turf.
Thursday’s rubber match at MHS couldn’t have been more different.
Monticello got an astounding eight goals from Colin Price, who outscored the entire Charlottesville team by himself, and hat tricks from Brian Young, Derek Walker and Todd Baber in an 18-7 victory in the Charlottesville Conference semifinals. It was Monticello’s highest scoring output of the season.
The Mustangs started fast and never looked back, scoring the first six goals of the game and eliminating any doubt as to which team would advance to regional competition.
“It was huge,” Price said of the fast start. “It felt great to finally start clicking and every goal going in that we shot, and moving the ball around well.”
MHS’ opening flurry featured three goals from Price, two from Young and one from Walker before Troy Hughes put the Black Knights on the board with 2:38 remaining in the first quarter. Hughes paced the Charlottesville offense on the afternoon, registering a hat trick of his own.
“[Colin] has always been an animal, it just takes him a long time to dodge (with) his head up,” Monticello head coach Tucker Tapscott said. “Once he does, he’s a nightmare for anyone defending him.”
After Hughes’ first goal, Monticello resumed its dominance, scoring five of the next six goals bridging halftime to increase its margin to 12-2 midway through the third quarter. Hughes’ second goal with 5:51 remaining in the third trimmed the margin to single digits again, but Baber answered for the Mustangs a minute and a half later to make it 13-3.
After the teams traded goals again, the Black Knights scored two in a row to move within eight, the closest the margin had been since halftime, but that was as close as they would get as Price netted his second-to-last goal of the game with 8:31 left in the fourth and bagged another with just over two minutes left to round out the Mustangs’ scoring.
“My teammates just passed me the ball, I hit the crease and just shot,” Price said. “We’ve played [Charlottesville] twice, and we feel like we haven’t played to our highest level, but I feel like we played that way tonight.”
Most of Monticello’s offense came as a result of domination in the faceoff circle. Freshman Austin Haverstrom won 10 draws for the Mustangs. Sophomore goalie Ben Landers registered 15 saves.
Monticello will face cross-county rival Western Albemarle in the conference final, while Charlottesville’s season is complete. The Mustangs also earned a bid to the Region 4A South tournament with the victory.
