By Logan Riddick / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
When Chase Phillips found his brother Brodie open on the left side for a goal with 1:59 to play to pull Monticello within one, the Western Albemarle faithful had to wonder if they were doomed to relive the regular-season finale.
Last Friday night, on the same field, Monticello trailed by five goals after three quarters before rallying to win in overtime. In April, the Mustangs overcame a halftime deficit to win in Crozet, too. This time, in the West Central Division tournament title game, the Warriors built a 6-1 halftime lead.
“A tale of two halves, right?” said Western coach Alex Whitten. “I’m telling the coaches in [the locker room]; it was 8-3 last week. We knew we would play hard. It’s just a matter of whether we were able to execute when needed to execute.”
The teams’ third meeting of the spring ultimately broke in Western’s favor, as the fourth-seeded Warriors held on to a 7-6 win to take the championship over third-seeded Monticello.
“I’m really happy for our seniors,” said Whitten. “They’ve been playing hard all year, and this game’s for them. This is awesome for those guys.”
Six different Warriors scored in the first half including Dylan Curry, who also tallied two second-quarter assists. Monticello’s lone goal came from Brodie Phillips midway through the first quarter. The Mustangs misfired on a number of close opportunities, and goalie Andrew Dickerson made seven saves. Dickerson got the start even after fellow junior Rives Cowen’s strong performance in the semifinal upset over Albemarle.
“We try to split the games 50/50; we’re both really equal, and he got the start in the semifinal,” said Dickerson. “I owe a lot of credit to my defense. They didn’t let them take any hard shots.”
Dickerson made life easy on Whitten, capitalizing on the coach’s confidence to continue the rotation of keepers.
“He had a ton of big saves early in the game and cleared the ball well,” said Whitten. “At 6-1, with Andrew playing the way he was in the first half, there was no reason to pull him out.”
Monticello battled back in the third quarter with four straight goals, including a pair from Chase Phillips. Freshman Jack Loffredo won five straight face-offs, helping the Mustangs keep possession for most of the period. In the last minute, Western’s Drew Abernathy notched a goal in transition, his second, to quell the momentum.
“We said at halftime that Monticello is a better team than one goal in one half, so you better get ready for their best coming out of the gate in the second half,” Whitten said. “That five goal cushion makes it easier and gives your defense a little bit of leeway.”
With Western maintaining a 7-5 lead, defense dominated the fourth quarter. Neither team had scored when Monticello coach Matt Hicks called his last timeout with 5:19 to play. Moments later, Western was flagged for unnecessary roughness, followed promptly by an unsportsmanlike call on the sideline to give the Mustangs a two-man advantage. However, Monticello failed to get off a shot, and the Warriors came up with a ground ball and cleared to kill the one minute penalties.
“Our extra-man unit has given us a lot of great looks throughout the year. I think as much effort as we spent to battle back, it made it kind of tough there to keep our focus on looking for that right shot,” Hicks said.
Finally, as the clock ticked under two minutes, the Phillips brothers connected for Monticello. Loffredo then won his seventh of eight second half face-offs to setup the offense again; however, a double team by Preston Hughes and Tommy Mullin forced a turnover. Whitten called timeout with 1:09 left when Western came up with the ground ball.
“Give it to Drap and let him run,” Dickerson said in reference to Drapanas the speedy All-Scrimmage Play wideout and defensive back. “Punt return.”
With 38 seconds left, Monticello forced the needed turnover as a Warrior stepped on the end line behind goal. Senior middie Michael Darby took the outlet pass and raced across midfield near the front sideline for MHS. A frantic player switch for Western seemed to disrupt the plan of attack as, before contact, the ball slipped to the ground. The Warriors recovered and ran out the last half minute to claim victory.
Monticello opens Section Tournament play on Monday at E.C. Glass in Lynchburg.
“The [section]’s going to be a great opportunity for us,” said Hicks. “E.C. Glass is a very tough team. To our benefit, we have seen them earlier this year, so that allows us to do a little bit of game planning.”
Western travels to Douglas Freeman in Richmond, also on Monday.
