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With emphasis: White hot Albemarle earns state title shot

Photo: Ryan Yemen

With four corner kicks in the first ten minutes, it was clear very early that the Albemarle girls soccer team came up to Fairfax intent on spending the entire weekend playing at Westfield High.

 

Behind an impressive offensive clinic from Fizzy Gonzalez and yet another shutout from goalkeeper Aiyanah Tyler-Cooper and the defense in front of her, the Patriots punched their ticket to the program’s first-ever Group 5A title game with a 4-0 victory over Maury.

 

“We were definitely ready for this game,” said Amy Sherrill said. “We were locked in and ready to go.”

 

The pressure came early from Albemarle and while the Maury defense was able to thwart the Patriots’ first four corners, eventually those walls broke too. In the 11th minute of the contest, Gonzalez converted on a shot low to the left corner to make it 1-0. It was the first of many to come from her.

 

“She’s fast and relentless and everyone played hard up top to work together and it worked out that today was her day,” Sherrill said. “We knew we wanted to get one early and just keep knocking. So as soon as we put that first one in it was kind of a relief and then it was get another, and another, and another before you take your foot off the gas pedal.”

 

The Commodores answered with some of the best pressure they had all game but Tyler-Cooper was able to make the first of her five saves on the day. From that point forward, Madison Kersey and the Albemarle defense controlled the middle of the field.

 

“We knew they had a stud in (Star White) and we had to shut her out to be successful,” Tyler-Cooper said. “We had to stay connected and communicate and get everything out. Defense played phenomenal, was strong all game.”

 

With eight minutes until the break, Maury caught a tough break as one of its own defenders ran into keeper Laura Hagan. The collision wound up knocking Hagan out of the game. Albemarle was able to capitalize five minutes later when Gonzalez fired home a shot from 30 yards out to make it 2-0.

 

“We just relaxed, took our time and picked our head up on the ball and found the pass or found the shot and it really worked,” Gonzalez said. “We just kept our mentality up, our intensity up.”

 

Little changed coming out of the break. Gonzalez rifled in another shot from deep just 90 seconds into the second half to pick up the hat trick.

 

The Patriots only had one real scare in the second as a Abby Urban got a rebound got loose from Tyler-Cooper as she was on the ground. However Urban’s shot sailed high of the net and Albemarle’s shutout stayed in take.

 

Gonzalez netted her fourth goal of the game with 8:20 to play when she finished a breakaway that she began at midfield.

 

Albemarle will face Mountain View in the state championship game on Saturday at noon at Westfield. The Wildcats edged Deep Run in penalty kicks before the Patriots faced the Commodores. Albemarle beat Mountain View last week 3-2 in overtime in the Region 5A North championship.

 

“It’s great to get here,” Tyler-Cooper said. “I know the underclassmen have worked so hard to get this done. So the seniors know just how bad all 20 of us want this.”

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