As the host of the VIC championship game against North Cross, Blue Ridge came in with the goal of picking up the win, tuning things up and getting ready for the big dance of the VISAA Division 1 playoffs set to start this weekend. With a 13-7 victory over the Barons that showcased Joey Szabo’s ability to change the game with 15 wins to just six losses, Blue Ridge took advantage of its time of possession, size advantage to set itself up with some momentum going into a home state quarterfinal with Collegiate on Saturday.
“I really thought our captain, Joey, really helped us establish control with those faceoffs,” said Blue Ridge coach Michael Herring. “He’s not a pure (face off) guy, he’s an all-around midfielder that just happens to be really good at faceoffs and today he was just terrific. Those extra possessions gave us the opportunity to build a strong lead.”
There was plenty of scoring early in the first. Blue Ridge jumped out to a 2-0 lead with 8:56 left in the first on goals from Szabo and Phoenix Pullen. But the Raiders took the first few punches in stride. So while the Barons were able to dominate the time of possession and outshoot the Raiders, North Cross was able to tie things up at 3-3 late in the first with senior captain Austin Zappia netting a pair along the way.
The Raiders came out and took the lead in the second after a lengthy possession was capped with quick strike from Gabe Zappia but the advantage was short lived. The Barons won the ensuing faceoff and tied things up nine seconds later on a shot from Jack Charboneau. It was the beginning of a 4-0 run in just three minutes that featured a pair of goals from Keegan Kozack that also forced a North Cross timeout and gave Blue Ridge a solid lead to work with.
“I took it on myself there to make sure I won those faceoffs 100 percent,” Szabo said. “Once we kind of settled down and got all the worries out of the way and worked the ball around we were able to get a goal and then make the lead a little bigger than it should be.”
Zane Ratliffe stopped the bleeding for North Cross on a well placed bounce shot with 5:08 until the break to make it 7-5. Blue Ridge answered back two minutes later on a bang-bang play from Tommy Collins to Pullen who finished the play with ease. One minute later Spencer Amacher ripped a shot from outside to make it 9-5 which is where things stood going into the break.
“We practice to win so when all the guys come together as a team like that I think we’re capable of beating any team,” Collins said. “They were playing man-to-man so we just tried to move the ball a lot and cut through, find the open guys and we did and that led to a lot of goals.”
After killing off a penalty, the Barons went up 10-5 with Kozack — who was named VIC player of the year after the game — completing a wrap around goal with 10:40 left in the third. Blue Ridge needed just 37 seconds later to get another outside shot from Amacher to go up by six and that set the tone for the rest of the game.
“We’ve got some decent dodgers, some guys that are pretty talented and so as a defense you can try and get geared up for one guy but we’ve got more than that, quite a few talented guys,” Herring said. “What I think we’re starting to do is seeing the third, fourth, fifth and six options come through and that’s just really cool to see as a coaching staff.”
From there there was little scoring with the Barons simply melting away the clock. With few Blue Ridge turnovers and the time of possession wear and tear mounting, North Cross’ defense was as good as Hayden Burns in net, who put together an impressive game in between the pipes with 17 saves on the day.
But with the Barons defense forcing turnovers on the other end and playing physically, there was little the Raiders were able to do to mount a comeback and the score stayed at 13-7 for the vast majority of the fourth.
On the day for Blue Ridge, Kozack had four goals and an assist. Collins finished with two goals and two assists. Charboneau chipped in two goals and an assist. Pullen and Amacher both had two goals each. In addition to his 16 faceoff wins, Szabo also led the Barons with six ground balls.
The Barons (14-6) will host Collegiate on Saturday in the VISAA Division 1 quarterfinals. Blue Ridge took down the Cougars 9-7 in their regular season meeting back in the third week of March.
“It should be a great game and we’re excited,” Herring said. “This will be the fourth installment of this new budding rivalry because we played them twice last year. And with this being the 8-9 play in game, it’s two evenly matched teams so we have our work cut out.”
