It’s too late in the 2014 season for a complete reinvention of a team.
But a tweak? A slight alteration in approach?
It’s the perfect time of year for that.
“Our mentality changed a little bit over the last week,” said St. Anne’s-Belfield defensive midfielder Lee Parkhill. “I think we needed to be a little more physical which we kind of embodied that … I think that’s what we needed.”
STAB’s boys lacrosse team took the physicality up a notch over the last week and it helped take their defense to the next level, shutting out the Woodberry Forest offense in the first half en route to an 8-4 victory in the VISAA Division I quarterfinals.
“(I was) watching some film and feeling like we were getting a little passive,” said STAB coach Bo Perriello. “We’ve got big, athletic defensemen and we want to make sure they’re getting out and making sure guys know they’re there. There were times at 10 or 12 yards (from the goal) where guys weren’t even making contact so we really wanted to press out a lot more.”
The No. 3-seeded Saints were more physical than they’d been in the past on ground balls too, and it helped them build a 27-15 advantage over the No. 6 Tigers. That advantage on loose balls helped them maintain possession and unleash a barrage of 42 shots. Woodberry keeper Taulford Wharton proved up to the task on many of them with a sterling, 15-save performance. But the time of possession wore down the Tigers and a late first half flurry of goals helped end Woodberry’s season and vault the Saints into the state’s final four.
“We played defense a lot in that first half and held them scoreless for 20 some odd minutes and right at the end they found some seams that opened up just from guys being a little bit tired,” said Woodberry coach Brian Hemming. “That’s going to happen when you play defense that much against a good team.”
Austin Park, STAB’s faceoff an who helped lead the Saints to a 10-5 advantage at midfield also led that ground ball advantage with six ground balls on the night. Longstick midfielder Rob Schotta and attackman Scott Cathcart finished with four each.
“We really had their top players pegged, we had our two best poles (Schotta and John Bower) on (Pat Shea and Todd Fedyck) and I think that really helped,” STAB goalie Eric Buhle. “The defense was hitting their sticks and their hands and that slows down the shot and I can really get to them.”
Buhle had eight saves on the night which facing 21 shots.
That flurry of scoring also put Woodberry in a deep hole. After leading 1-0 much of the first half off an early Nevin Masri goal, the Saints found a groove with under two minutes to play as Grant Schultz struck with 1:22 left, Cathcart scored with 34 seconds left and Jack Schultz found an opening with less than two seconds left on the clock before the half. The Saints played Schultz in a much more significant role than he took on against the Tigers 12 days ago during the squads’ regular season meeting.
“My initial take was Jack, as a freshman, was a little small given Woodberry’s size but I think that was a mistake on my part and in retrospect I felt like his craftiness and his off ball play was something we could take advantage of,” Perriello said. “So we got him a lot more reps today and he got a couple of goals that really helped propel us to victory.”
Defensively the Saints held Woodberry scoreless until the 6:05 mark in the second half when Pat Shea broke through for the Tigers. STAB immediately answered though when Jack Schultz struck again. The Saints repeated that process later in the third, answering a James Hewell goal with a Fritz Berry score less than a minute later on the other end. Woodberry (12-6) scratched out two late fourth quarter goals, but two STAB goals early in the frame including a rare one by the defensive-focused Parkhill had already put them in an 8-2 hole.
“I could not be more proud of a group of guys,” Hemming said. “Our coaching staff has just asked these guys to work hard and they did. They always gave us their best.”
While the Tigers’ season ends, the Saints will take on St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes in the state quarterfinals, an annual regular season rival for STAB. SSSA beat Cape Henry 8-6 to advance to the state semifinals and STAB will be looking to avenge a narrow earlier season loss to SSSA in a defensive struggle.
