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Deadlocked

Between Steven Bargh and Julian Lowe, Albemarle was sure knocking. The Patriots had a handful of opportunities in both the first and second overtimes in their match against cross-county rival Western Albemarle, but high or wide seemed to be the theme of the night as the Warriors held strong and the two teams walked away in a 1-1 tie.

“We found our legs and some aggression in the overtimes,” said Albemarle coach Scott Jackson. “I think that (Steven) was probably a little bit frustrated in the end, but he created so many chances for us.”

The Patriots drew first blood in the contest when Micah Arseneault connected with Clark Melton on a corner kick that Melton punched it in.

“Micah just played a really nice ball,” Melton said. “All I had to do was head it in.”

The goal came immediately after Clark found Kai Marshall, also on a corner, but Marshall’s header wound up bouncing too high and cleared the net out of bounds.

Bargh came up short on a pair of chances early in the second to put his team out in front of the Warriors by another goal, but on both occasions Western goalie Kai Shin was able to make the stops.

However, the Warriors quickly rallied back as they began to come away with more and more possessions at midfield.

“When we gave up that goal, it definitely swung all the momentum to Albemarle,” said Western coach Paul Rittenhouse. “But then in the second half, our midfield started to play much better. We tried to articulate how important their spot on the field was by saying ‘Hey, if you start playing stronger defensively, we’ll start making some of the combination passes.’ When Aaron Meyers played better at center-mid, suddenly we were just playing ‘chuck ‘n duck.’”

From that point on, the Warriors found an offensive groove as Sun Linge, Will Odom and Alex Nolet all had solid scoring chances, but to no avail. However, with momentum in their favor, Western finally locked the game in a tie when Nolet was able to knock home a shot from the top of the box with 15 minutes left in regulation.

“In the beginning I wasn’t quite motivated enough,” Nolet said. “In the second half I really started fighting for the ball. I’ve got pain in my feet now, but it worked out in the end.”

In overtime Bargh hit Lowe on a crossing pass, but the shot flew just to the right of the net. Later in the second overtime, Sam Mackay connected with Lowe, but this time the shot went high.

Albemarle (0-0-1) will head to Monticello on Friday at 6:30 p.m.

Western (0-0-1) goes back to scrimmaging before resuming play with a road contest at Waynesboro on March 24.

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