You’re not going to hear a lot out of Cameron Green. The Albemarle midfielder is far from the most vocal player on the Patriots’ roster.
But in Albemarle’s barnburner of a rivalry clash on a chilly, occasionally snowy April night against Western, Green’s stick and his shot did a lot of talking.
Green scored five goals on just eight shots Tuesday night as the Patriots pulled off a 16-14 victory over Western in Crozet in the first installment of local public school lacrosse’s premier rivalry.
“He’s a great two-way (midfielder), that’s why he’s such an asset to us,” said Albemarle coach Dave King. “Sure he scored the game-winner but he got back on defense…he’s smart and he’s really come on this year.”
With Western trying to clamp down on Matt Crist and Hunter Brown, Green had a chance to make a big impact and he took advantage. His final goal came with 2:36 to play and it became the gamewinner as Albemarle (4-1) completed a rally from being down two goals early in the fourth quarter.
“I saw they were shutting me off so I ran down (behind the goal) and after the shot I picked it up,” Green said. “We set up a play and luckily I was able to run around the crease and get one in.”
Kevin Bernardino’s score just 10 seconds after Green’s go-ahead goal came off the ensuing faceoff and helped seal the win for the Patriots. Over the final 2:26, Albemarle’s defense stood strong while the offense took huge chunks of time off the clock.
Western kept building two and three goal leads all night but each time Albemarle answered and the Warriors just couldn’t put the Patriots away for good. Despite hat tricks from Sumner Corbett and Clark Sipe as well as a two goal, two assist effort from Justin Haws, Western couldn’t hold off the late charge by the Patriots despite holding a 21-13 edge in faceoffs.
“You’ve got to give credit to Albemarle,” said Western coach Alex Whitten. “Their (ability) on offense to find the backside look was phenomenal tonight. When you have 30 points scored and it’s 16-14, those are the kind of games we want to play in and those are the kind of games that we think this rivalry can be.”
Carson Franklin played big time in the cage for the Warriors despite surrendering 16 goals. He made several acrobatic and point-blank saves while totaling 13 stops on the night as he helped stem the tide of a barrage of Albemarle shots.
The Patriots’ Bernardino finished with three goals and a pair of assists while Crist distributed well all night with four assists to go with his two-goal outing. Zac Willis and Justin Moran each had two goals and Hunter Brown and Ian Davis had a goal and an assist each. Nick Chisholm won a pair of fourth quarter faceoffs for the Patriots that both came at critical moments.
“I think we did a little better job in the second half of tying up at least their faceoff guys and you have to give Nick Chisholm credit who came off the bench after standing in the snow and won those last two faceoffs,” King said.
Albemarle got a tremendous second half performance from Kyle Seago in between the pipes as he made five saves, including two in a row late to help preserve the win.
