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Hold Steady: Complete team effort vaults Blue Ridge past STAB in state tournament

Photo by Bart Isley

For a long stretch in the beginning of the fourth quarter of the VISAA Division I boys lacrosse first round playoff clash in St. George Saturday, Blue Ridge’s defense had to hang in there. St. Anne’s-Belfield kept creating shot after shot with a forced turnover on the ride thrown in for good measure. For what felt like five minutes, the Barons just had to hold up. 

 

“They were so on point and they knew they had each other’s back,” said Blue Ridge’s Spencer Amacher. “Isaac (Prantera), Owen (Faris) and Ethan (Eggers) are a great squad especially for how young they are, they are incredible and Adam (Bland) too, was just phenomenal.”

 

Blue Ridge’s relatively young group of close defenders (Eggers and Prantera are sophomores, Faris a junior) survived that protracted stretch and the Barons in turn held on for a 12-9 victory over STAB to advance to the state quarterfinals where they’ll face Episcopal next week. The Barons’ defense got it done with 10 saves from keeper Adam Bland against a rejuvenated STAB offense that benefited from the recent return of Tim Myers and Pierre Reeves, two of the Saints’ top scorers, with Myers scoring four goals while Reeves had a goal and an assist.

 

“The ball was in that end a lot with us being man down for two minutes there also and I thought we really battled,” said Blue Ridge coach Dom Starsia. “They really dug in at the defensive end and that hasn’t been a characteristic of ours the entire season so you’re glad to see that.”

 

The Blue Ridge offense did enough to make sure that defensive effort held up with Amacher scoring four goals on the day including the one that all but iced the game with under two minutes to play where he corralled a bounce pass in front of the crease from Jack Charboneau, shifted to his right under a defender and dove in front of the crease for the finish. When the Barons had to have a play or needed to settle down throughout the game, they went to Amacher and Charboneau, who finished with two goals and three assists. 

 

“Jack and I are both so blessed to be on this team and we love these guys so much,” Amacher said.

 

Phoenix Pullen had a pair of goals and an assist, with the feed coming on the game’s most spectacular play, a behind-the-back long stick goal from defender Kai Nelson. Nelson’s finish was part of a huge third quarter run that helped the Barons open up an 11-7 lead after holding a 6-5 advantage at halftime. That 5-1 run turned out to be the difference-maker after the defensive effort down the stretch. 

 

Kolbe Haug scored once for the Barons and dished out two assists while Nelson added an assist to his longstick goal. Evan Foster also notched a goal and Fort Carden scored once and added an assist. 

 

That balanced scoring attack was indicative of how locked in the Barons were as a team from the opening face off. 

 

“Our guys, Kai, Adam, Evan, Fort, Kolbe, Jack — every single guy on our team was playing their best game today,” Amacher said. “We had all kinds of goal scorers, it was a team effort and it was awesome.”

 

The game was a wild, chaotic mess in the first half, with a sequence that ended the first quarter representative of that madness. STAB’s Max Gunderson appeared to score with less than a minute left in the frame, but while the Saints were celebrating he was called for entering the crease. The Saints didn’t seem to realize it until Blue Ridge was well past midfield on a fastbreak with bodies seemingly flying everywhere. While the Barons didn’t finish to extend their then 3-1 lead, the intensity just continued to ramp up throughout that first half. 

 

“It was a battle from the start,” Amacher said. 

 

Blue Ridge managed to settle itself down in the second half in particular and that made a huge difference for the Barons in that stretch. 

 

“I thought we actually got better as the game went on, the fourth quarter might have been our best overall,” Starsia said. “We spent some time yesterday talking about what’s required to be successful and I saw some evidence of that today which is good.”

 

Liam Hurley finished with two goals, two assists and two ground balls for the Saints and Jake Connelly had a goal and an assist. Jago Gould made seven saves in the cage for the Saints. 

 

Blue Ridge will face Episcopal Tuesday in the VISAA D1 quarterfinals.

 

 

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