In a 10 day stretch from April 29 to May 8, Western Albemarle’s boys soccer team endured a harrowing stretch of games, facing cross-county rival Albemarle twice and another rival, Jefferson District champion Charlottesville once.
The Warriors went 0-2-1 in that stretch and it drained a roster that was rebuilt after last year’s state title run.
“They fought hard, they worked as hard as they could and regardless of the results it just takes an emotional toll on you,” said Western Albemarle coach Milo Oakland. “I think we’ve been able to recharge our batteries a little bit and I think that’s what you’re seeing right here.”
The right here Oakland was talking about? A convincing 4-0 victory in the pouring rain over Monticello in the Conference 29 semifinals where the Warriors looked as comfortable in their own skin as they have all season. The win puts the Warriors in the conference final and vaults them into the region tournament.
That stretch against the Patriots and Black Knights forced the Warriors to reevaluate who they were and rediscover their own style of play.
“We started playing sort of a different game and we had to get the ball back down on the ground and start passing it around like we can do,” said Western Albemarle midfielder Wilson Brown. “We’re not the biggest or the fastest team but we are technical and we work the ball well in the midfield. We can use that to our advantage.”
Monticello absorbed the brunt of what happens when the Warriors use that technical ability to their advantage despite attempting a new way of coming at the Warriors, playing four men back at the start of the game.
“This is the third game they have come at us with something different,” Oakland said. “First game they played a high line, second game they backed off and this game they had a specific tactic that took us some time to solve.”
It didn’t take Western much time to score though as Luke Magargee slotted in what held up as the gamewinner less than six minutes into the game.
“That may have been outside the run of play, we hadn’t really solved them yet but we got one in and that gave us the calm and the poise to figure out what we needed to do,” Oakland said.
Magargee’s goal was the halftime advantage too, but Western tacked on three more goals in the second half, with Brown scoring the first after the break before John Riordan buried a penalty kick and Harley Davis tapped in a ball at the end of incredible run by the offense late in the game.
Despite the loss, Monticello gets a chance to play for a region tournament berth in the Conference consolation game Thursday. After winning just two games last season, competing in a game like this and having a shot at a region berth is a big step for the Mustangs.
But it was the Warriors’ night, with a much more comfortable, relaxed squad taking the field and that rekindled approach is paying dividends — Western’s batteries are recharged.
“The goals are coming now,” Brown said. “It’s all coming together now and it’s a perfect time to make a good run here in the postseason.”
