In the first half, the Albemarle girls soccer team was tested, and hard. The defense answered the call and so when it came to figuring out how to make the offense gel as the Patriots were missing Fizzy Gonzalez with a concussion suffered previously, it really only took the first half. Almost entirety of the second half with J.E.B. Stuart in the Region 5A North was spent in Raiders territory. Albemarle, knocked. And knocked. And knocked some more but between post checks, wide shots, a slew of clutch saves, things appeared destined for overtime.
That was until Brooke Bauman came up was a 50-50 ball, flew down the field and sent a cross over to Katie Schnell who buried it top shelf with just over seven minutes to play. Just like that, the Patriots are headed back to Northern Virginia next week for the second time in as many years to play in the Group 5A final four.
“It felt like we weren’t getting the chances in the first half but we told them to trust in us, believe in us and that everything would work out,” said Albemarle coach Amy Sherrill. “The ball did finally bounce our way once and it was just amazing. Katie Schnell was our next person up (with Fizzy out) and so big time players step up and make big time plays. She was hitting cross bars, she had some toe pokes. We were pretty excited.”
The story in the first half for the Patriots was answering the physical play of the Raiders, Albemarle’s defense and goalkeeping. Albemarle didn’t shy away from it, just opposite, it embraced it and became quite physical itself. Patriots goalkeeper Ayanah Tyler-Cooper came up with three huge first half saves to keep things scoreless going into halftime, the most impressive of which came when the senior scooped up a rebound of a shot off the post midway through the first.
“We know she’s the best keeper in our area and she proves it time and time again,” Sherrill said. “She’s got 10 really good people in front of her but when the ball finally comes her way she’s going to get it.”
In the second half, Bauman, Schnell and Leticia Freitas asserted themselves. Six minutes into the second, Freitas, Hannah Eiden and Megan Schantz combined on a fracas in the front of the net but missed wide. Then Raiders goalkeeper Sarah Rutherford — who by all counts, played out of her mind and brought a level of energy to her defense that was impressive — came up with the first of four second half saves when she robbed Freitas with 29:30 to play.
“At halftime we had a chip on our shoulder that we needed to finish, that we were better than this,” Bauman said. “We figured out that the over the top balls weren’t working so we had to play the midfield and that’s what we did to change things in the second half.”
Tyler-Cooper came up with a solid stop six minutes later, but that would the last of the heavy pressure from the Raiders. For the next 20 minutes the ball was at midfield in Albemarle control on at J.E.B. Stuart’s door step. The Patriots just missed on a free kick with 20 minutes left. Then nine seconds later Schnell was robbed, got a second shot and just missed on the rebound.
All of that led up to the big break that was Schnell’s go-ahead header to make it 1-0.
“There was a deflection, a pass out wide,” Bauman said. “I looked up and saw Katie running up and said I was going to switch to my right foot and hit her up.”
And so for Schnell, who was in the box creating problems for the Raiders all game, the timing was finally right, the pass was there and so was she.
“Brooke had a great cross in and I was just able to be there and have that header” Schnell said. “That was just such an amazing feeling to that for my team because I know we were battling, trying to get every opportunity and it was just so hard for us to finish. Actually getting that was just amazing.“
Albemarle adjusted to J.E.B. Stuart’s attempt to get aggressive offensively and the last seven minutes flew by with the Patriots maintaining control for the bulk of it, much in the way the second half played out before Schnell’s goal.
So now for the second time in program history, the Patriots have made the Group 5A tournament to extend their season in the final weekend of play. Albemarle ran into eventual state champion Mills Godwin last year. With so much experience coming back from that team, the Patriots are excited to show that it’s no fluke this group made to the final four last year, and is headed back again this year after flirting with state tournament bids for many years prior.
“It’s really shown that we’re meant to be there,” Schnell said. “We’ve been working hard all season. We’re ready to fight. We’re ready to win it.”
