By Price Thomas / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
In a game with large implications in the Jefferson District playoff race, a Richard Beckett-Ansa strike in the 54th minute followed by a Forrest White penalty kick in the 79th gave Western Albemarle a valuable 2-0 victory over their cross town rival Charlottesville High School on the Black Knights’ senior night.
Familiarity breeds contempt so as the season wears on and teams are meeting each other for the second time, coaches are searching for ways to grab the upper hand.
“As we go through the second half of the season and we’ve seen teams before, our opposition will try and do things to stifle people’s games,” said Western coach Paul Rittenhouse. “Tonight we made some maneuvers to keep things fresh. We try to make guys play in different spots so we can be dynamic and other teams can’t focus on one guy and shut us down.”
The tactical change nearly paid dividends midway through the first half when White played a perfectly weighted ball in behind the Black Knight defense for sophomore Grant Tolber. Outracing the backline, Tolber looked poised open his account, however an acrobatic save from Gabriel Hunter-Chang kept the game scoreless. Throughout the rest of the first half the Black Knights looked dangerous on the counter attack but couldn’t find the back of the net and the teams went into the break dead locked at zero.
Whatever coach Rittenhouse told his troops at halftime, he should bottle and sell to other coaches.
“It was part tactical, part emotional,” remarked Rittenhouse. “It’s been a tough week at school so we tried to keep it a little light but recognize what CHS was giving us. We thought that they had a certain defensive strategy and if we were able to change the way we attacked we could open things up.”
Sophomore forward Richard Beckett-Ansa got the message, scoring the eventual game winner 14 minutes into the half.
“It was [White] controlling the midfield,” said Beckett-Ansa. “We’ve learned to play together so when he sent it through I was able to use my speed to get behind the defense and put it in.”
The proverbial nail in the coffin came with only seconds to play as White stepped up to take a penalty kick. The freshman relied on a bit of fortitude as Hunter-Chang guessed correctly and got a hand to the shot, however the ball skimmed off his palm and into the net.
As the CHS seniors left the field for the final time in the regular season, coach Stephan Cost reflected on their time as Black Knights.
“It’s an interesting group of guys. In one case they are the most talented,” said Cost. “They have been together for 3 years, some of them playing varsity for 4 years and some play soccer at a very high level. When we play soccer it looks good. We look like a good team and have had some good wins.”
The Warriors, who stumbled out of the gate, seem to be shaking off early season blues and starting to pick up steam. If they can continue the trend, they’ll have a chance to challenge for the Jefferson District crown.
