After struggling to maintain, much less make the most of their possessions in the first half, something clicked for Covenant. The squad that ran the field during the second half looked entirely different as they took lengthy possessions, waited for the right opportunities and capitalized when they arrived. As a result, the Eagles opened up the third quarter with five straight goals to jump out in front of Virginia Episcopal. Covenant then milked away the clock in the fourth to pick up a 10-7 win in the VIC semifinals.
“We weren’t possessing the ball on offense in the first half,” said Covenant coach Rich Little. “Everyone was doing a little too much running around they just did not have the poise that we’re used to having.”
Both offenses had trouble in the early going between turnovers and an inability to get close to the net, but Tav Hafner put Covenant on board first when he found the back of the net halfway through the first quarter. The Bishops answered back, on a goal from Payne McIntosh, just 16 seconds later.
Hafner struck again in the last seconds of first quarter, and once again VES hit back on a breakaway goal from Daniel Alexander. The second half belonged to the Bishops with the Covenant defense standing strong the damage was limited to just two more goals.
“My hat goes off to our defense and our goalie (Giles Cabe) for just stepping it up and really just keeping us in it,” Little said.
The Eagles got a spark just before halftime when Eric Dixon ripped a shot with nine seconds to play that cut the VES lead to one goal, and from that point on everything was different.
In the third quarter Adam Villio made his presence felt at longpole on offense as he not only scored but also got the job done on faceoffs. Miles Davis, Coles Godine, Benji Colberg and Alex Khueler all scored as well in the third frame as the Eagles jumped out to a 4-goal lead.
“Our kids got the job done because they were able to dig in and get the ground balls,” Little said. “That’s the name of the game. You’ve got to want to own that middle half of the field.”
After McIntosh scored again at the end of the third quarter, the Eagles got a pair of goals to start the fourth on shots from James Bellen and John Berry.
The Bishops netted a pair of goals in the last four minutes of play, but there was simply not enough time to mount a comeback with Covenant taking care of the ball on its offensive end.
When it was all said and done, nine different Eagles scored, as the VES defense looked to double Hafner.
“I thought Miles had a great game passing,” Hafner said. “We were able to get the ball around to a lot of different people and get some goals from people who haven’t always had the chance to score a lot.”
Although he got a bit of a break in action in the second half, Cabe still put together a solid stat line as he came through with 13 stops.
Covenant (10-7) steps out of the post season today and travels to arch-rival St. Anne’s-Belfield at 7 p.m.
