Albemarle senior Ryan Carlisle covered his wrist with a huge bag of ice just minutes after the final whistle blew, nursing an injury sustained on the final face-off of the night.
Even with the check that necessitated the ice, Carlisle won that face-off too.
After halftime, Carlisle was unstoppable on the face-off, keeping a dangerous Briar Woods attack under control by winning all but one face-off after the break. In the process, he vaulted Albemarle to an incredible come-from-behind 9-7 victory over the Falcons in the state lacrosse quarterfinals, punching Albemarle’s ticket to a game in the semifinals at Westfield Wednesday night.
“I wasn’t really focused too much,” Carlisle said. “The second half I really pulled it together.”
That held true for the entire Albemarle roster. The Patriots looked disjointed in the opening half and trailed 6-1 at the break, struggling to find an offensive rhythm as the Falcons’ potent offense got rolling. Juniors Kevin Cuellar, Justin Little and Connor Cashman all scored in the first half for Briar Woods, with Cuellar opening and closing the scoring with bookend goals in the first and second quarters. But without possession in the second half, that dangerous unit was helpless as Albemarle started to storm back.
“They wanted it more in the second half,” said Briar Woods coach Bruce Lipson. “We didn’t get (the ball) the whole second half and when we did we threw it away.”
A big part of that was Carlisle’s incredible performance.
“That was just a gutty, gutty effort,” said Albemarle coach Pat McAdams. “That kid has, time and again, proven in big games that he’s capable of winning face-offs in critical situations. He was phenomenal.”
Albemarle won the opening face-off when Albemarle’s Tyler Johnson nabbed a tough ground ball in front of the Albemarle bench. That scoop led almost immediately to an unassisted Ryan McCollough goal to cut the Briar Woods lead to four. A long possession a few minutes later led to a Michael Bernardino goal off a McCollough assist and then on a fastbreak off another Carlisle face-off victory, Matt Crist hit Stephen Mastropaolo for a goal to pull Albemarle within two at the end of the third quarter.
Several players credited McAdams’ fiery halftime speech with the third quarter explosion, but the speech happened behind closed doors in the Albemarle locker room and the content wasn’t particularly clear.
“I hope they didn’t quote it,” McAdams joked.
The onslaught continued in the fourth quarter as Carlisle kept winning at midfield and Josh Calhoun and Tory Key, midfielders for the Patriots, made sure that even an offensive turnover or save stayed in Albemarle’s offensive zone with flawless transition defense. That hard work allowed Mastropaolo to hit Crist with an assist off the quarter’s opening face-off. Crist then hit McCollough for the equalizer at 6-6.
“I think everybody’s focus was a little off in the first half, I think we were a little nonchalant, a little lackadaisical—we were kind of coasting,” McAdams said. “And you can’t coast this time of year.”
Nick Pegg and Tyler Johnson finished off solid unassisted dodges from the outside to notch the seventh and eighth goals that lifted Albemarle to the win within a minute and a half of each other. Johnson’s came at 4:33 and from there the Patriots held on, surviving a Little goal that cut the lead to 8-7 and a turnover at one minute that gave Briar Woods control. Tyler Riegel’s clear after a Briar Woods turnover and feed to Mastopaolo at the 21-second mark iced the game.
“We looked at ourselves in the locker room and (asked) what is it going to take for us to get up again?,” Carlisle said. “We fought so hard and come back against all odds this year and that gave us the motivation to keep coming.”
The Patriots will face Chantilly, the Northern Region champions who beat Patrick Henry-Roanoke 15-9 Friday night Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Westfield High School.
