Albemarle’s boys lacrosse team beat Western Albemarle by two goals again just a couple of weeks after winning over their cross-county rivals by the exact same margin.

But the contest couldn’t have been much different as Friday night the Patriots won 7-5 in a defensive struggle after previously winning a 16-14 track meet against the Warriors.

“It feels good to run a competitive, well-played game with two good teams,” said Albemarle coach Dave King. “We were on the right side tonight.”

Albemarle built a 4-2 halftime lead with goals from Justin Moran, Andrew Hogg, Kevin Bernardino and Zac Willis. In the second half, a pair of third quarter goals by Willis and Bernardino gave Albemarle a 6-4 lead going into the final frame. A quick goal from Ian Davis in the fourth made it 7-4 Patriots, but Albemarle couldn’t find the back of the net again to help put the game away.

“We watched the first game and both teams shot the ball well,” King said. “The score was lower but I still think it was played really well by both teams.”

A slew of turnovers by Western, however, prevented the Warriors from scratching back into the contest as the Warriors squandered several key scoring chances in the second half.

“I told our guys, sometimes you’ve got to take your medicine and we didn’t play well,” said Western coach Alex Whitten. “That’s not to take anything away from Albemarle because I think they played really, really well. They’re fast — they’re a faster team than we are and there’s no remedy for speed. When you play against a faster team you can’t throw the ball out of bounds uncontested, you can’t give up easy goals and you can’t foul all the time. You need to hit your shots.”

A pair of sterling performances by Albemarle’s Kyle Seago and Western goalie Carson Franklin in the cages played a big role in the slow scoring night. Seago picked up the win with 13 saves while Franklin made 15 stops and kept the Warriors in the contest throughout.

“It was a great game to watch goalies, they played really well,” Whitten said.

The Patriots’ defensive group in front of Seago also played a huge role in clamping down on the Warriors.

“In front of him we didn’t run many subs tonight,” King said. “Bobby (Leytham), Sam (Calhoun) and Malcom (Meistrell), I think all three of those guys were solid, fundamentally sound and played good defense. It was nice to see the defense get a turn tonight.”

Luke Reilly, Sumner Corbett, Dylan Curry, Taylor Godine and Kent Henry all had goals for the Warriors. Corbett also had an assist. Henry and Jack Loffredo each had five ground balls on the night.

Bernardino and Willis finished with two goals each in the win. Hunter Brown had a pair of assists. Leytham led Albemarle with four ground balls. 

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Albemarle’s boys lacrosse team just held on tight.

The Patriots led by four goals with 5:34 left in the game and Western seemed poised to go away quietly. But the Warriors’ previously-dormant offense suddenly sprung to life and went on a 4-1 run to make Albemarle sweat the final couple of minutes.

But that one Albemarle goal proved to be enough as the Patriots held on for an 8-7 win in West Central Division play Thursday night.

While Western clawed back into it, Albemarle’s defense had played steady most of the night, sparked by the return of Jeff de Almedia from injury. The Patriots held an athletic Western squad to just three goals until the final spurt, a run that forced Albemarle to regroup.

“They started to pick up and it’s a rivalry game — we knew they were going to make a run,” said Albemarle senior defender Ryan Ramey. “When it was 7-5, I got the defense together and said ‘we knew this was coming, we’ve just got to stop the run.’ We dug in…we wanted to make it interesting for everyone.”

A Western turnover with just over a minute to play allowed the Patriots to run out the clock, with Hunter Brown killing a big chunk of it with a winding sprint through Albemarle’s offensive zone. The Patriots got a balanced offensive effort with Zaac Willis, Kevin Bernardino and Nick Pegg scoring two goals each. Matt Crist checked in with a one goal, two assist effort. Willis and Pegg each also had an assist.

But it was the defensive effort that steadied the Patriots.

“The past three games we’re keeping teams to about six games,” said Albemarle coach Greg Crow. “We’re mostly playing man and we just made a few changes and our guys have just manned up. The guys are playing with confidence now.”

Western, who has rebounded from an early season slide to play much better lacrosse in the last couple of weeks, got a strong effort from Nic Drapanas who had two goals and two assists while picking up a team-high six ground balls. The Warriors struggled to put the ball on the cage throughout though, with 37 total shots that turned into seven goals and eight saves. Twenty-two of the Warriors shots sailed wide.

“I’m not taking anything from Albemarle tonight because they were spot on tonight,” said Western coach Alex Whitten. “But we gave them a couple of really easy points and that’s been our M.O. all year — we have to earn ours and we give up a few easy ones. We’re working on those points to hopefully get a little bit better in the execution department.”

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