The weather was absolutely awful with rain pouring down, Blue Ridge boys lacrosse was on the road and they faced a rematch with an opponent they’d lost to in overtime earlier this year.
But goalie Brody Burrell made sure the Barons found a way to get it done.
Burrell posted nine saves and the Blue Ridge defense stepped up in a big way to lift the No. 9-seeded Barons to a 7-5 win over Woodberry Forest in the VISAA Division I first round.
“We brought a lot of energy (on the defensive end) and I find that that kind of gets us the win in the end,” Burrell said. “Sending slides early was kind of the move, especially the guy in the middle, we’d always kind of send him early.”
Blue Ridge came off the bus on fire against the Tigers, jumping out to a 3-0 lead. But Woodberry clawed back into it and trailed just 4-3 at the break. Blue Ridge broke through in the fourth quarter with a pair of goals to extend its lead to 7-4. While Woodberry managed to scratch out one more, the damage was done as the Barons kept their season alive and earned a spot in the state quarterfinals against Paul VI Tuesday on the road.
Ace Nichols and Kayle Ryan each finished with two goals, with Nichols also added an assist. Kolbe Haug, Evan Foster and Matt Niznik each scored once to round out the Blue Ridge scoring with Danton Molotky dishing out two assists and Fort Carden notching one assist.
“We played especially well early in the game and then we let it get away from us a little bit,” said Blue Ridge coach Dom Starsia. “Throughout the game we made some unforced errors where we could’ve put this game away earlier if we just made some shots, but we battled the whole time and that quality, that competitiveness is what you’re hoping to engender in a group like this.”
The Barons were strong on faceoffs too, winning 12 to the Tigers’ four.
The defense carried the Barons though, with Jackson Lindsey nabbing five ground balls while Owen Farris had four ground balls. When the Barons couldn’t come up with a turnover or stop, Burrell had them covered, helping force Woodberry into a 5-for-23 afternoon of shooting.
“He’s probably been our MVP all year, he stepped up for us today,” Starsia said. “We played a little zone, mixed in some zone and man and we had a number of shotclock violations. We’ve been good defensively all year and we were especially good today.”
Burrell is a junior who is committed to Colgate and played a lot of club lacrosse in Canada, but had never played for a high school team until this year. That made Saturday, with a fired up Woodberry student section and crowd getting into the close, rain-soaked battle, a special experience.
“It feels good, I’ve never played high school lacrosse until now but this is the first time I’ve been in an environment like this, it’s the coolest experience,” Burrell said. “I’m pumped to go play a school like PVI, that’s going to be awesome.”
Woodberry got two goals each from Smith Callaghan and Ben Monroe.
