By Luke Nadkarni / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
Thursday’s 5A South Region girls lacrosse final between Deep Run and Albemarle featured more twists, turns, ups and downs than a roller coaster.
In the end, though, it was the visitors from Richmond who came out victorious in a 15-14 decision that required sudden-death overtime to determine.
Cora Every scored for Deep Run in the golden goal period, giving her team a top seed in next week’s state tournament. Every picked up a loose ball after a shot from teammate Sydney Whitaker and found the back of the net with 1:34 remaining in the sudden-death period, completing a comeback that began with just over three minutes left in the second half.
“It just kept going back and forth,” Deep Run coach Rachel Haislip said. “When we were in that first overtime and we went up by two, we kind of thought we had it, but [the Patriots] did a great job of coming back and continuing that fight and I think there’s a good chance that we’ll see each other again on Saturday [in the state final].”
Albemarle held a 12-9 lead with 3:15 remaining when Whitaker, who registered a game-high eight goals, beat AHS freshman goalie Caroline Sheppard to make it a two-goal game. Emily LaBorne followed just over a minute later, making it 12-11 and putting some doubt into what had seemed to be a comfortable Albemarle team.
The Patriots managed to gain possession of the ball and attempted to run the clock out, but turned it over on a questionable offensive charging call on Heidi Karweik. The Wildcats took possession and Whitaker put the equalizer past Sheppard with 42.7 seconds left.
Despite winning the ensuing faceoff, Albemarle was unable to get a good look at the net and the game progressed to overtime. In the first three-minute session, the Wildcats ostensibly wrestled control of the game when LaBorne put her team ahead at the 1:46 mark. Every followed with a seemingly backbreaking goal with 18.2 seconds remaining in the first extra session.
But the Patriots had an answer. As time wound down in the second overtime, Julia Hartman kickstarted the comeback with the last of her team-high five goals with 1:08 left. Then Gwen Pattison took the ensuing draw and stormed down the field, beating Deep Run goalie Vicky Lowry to tie the game yet again with 55 seconds remaining.
Early on, it looked like Albemarle would cruise to victory as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead over the first eight minutes. Hartman scored the first two goals of the game, then Mary Earles followed with one of her two tallies with 16:49 to go in the first half. But the Wildcats clawed back with four goals, three of them by Whitaker, to take their first lead with 10:22 before halftime. The Patriots trailed by one with under a minute left before back-to-back goals by Hartman and Pattison took them into the break clinging to a 6-5 lead.
The teams traded goals coming out of the locker room before Karweik’s goal with 16:43 remaining began another 3-0 Albemarle spurt that also featured goals from Olivia Serbati and Sarah Hanssen. It was also a stretch in which the Patriots held the Wildcats scoreless for 12:50, ended by Whitaker’s goal with 7:01 remaining. That set up the final frantic several minutes which ultimately ended up being Albemarle’s demise.
“We twice had three-goal leads and let them back in,” Thraves said. “I felt like we had it, we were going to come out on top, but we just had a couple of mental lapses and we had too many turnovers. They’re a fast team, we got beat in transition a few times.”
The Patriots still advance to the state tournament by virtue of making the regional final, where they will meet the winner of the Marshall-Stone Bridge game next Tuesday. Deep Run will play the loser of that matchup.
“Luckily we’re still alive,” Thraves said. “I told the girls once they leave this field, we can’t hang our heads. We’ve got to look ahead and start preparing for Tuesday, and to use the emotion and the energy and the feeling from tonight to carry us through the next couple of practices and into Tuesday.
