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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Patriots sweep ’Toppers

Patrick Henry arrives late for the WVD tiebreaker because of a schedule snafu, but it doesn’t hurt.

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LYNCHBURG — Officials stood at midfield, waiting patiently. Administrators checked their watches, held up their palms and shrugged their shoulders. The scheduled start time came and went with only one team on the field.

“Are they even coming?” someone said.

Oh, yes. The Patrick Henry Patriots were coming.

A scheduling mix-up gave PH a late start to its critical lacrosse doubleheader Monday night against E.C. Glass, but neither the boys nor the girls had much difficulty once the games began. The Patriot girls raced out to a 5-0 lead and held on for an 11-8 victory over Glass, then the boys swooped in to complete the sweep, 14-7, in a pair of one-game playoffs at Lynchburg College to determine the Western Valley District champions.

Both PH teams will host a game Wednesday in the Northwest Region playoffs, with the time and opponents to be determined.

“There was a little confusion, but it worked out in the end,” said PH girls coach Kayla Moore, whose team arrived about 10 minutes after the scheduled start time of 5:30 because the Patriots thought the game was at 6. “We’re the type of team where it doesn’t matter how much time we have warming up. It’s more mentally getting into it than being physically ready.”

Janet Lynne Knopf, Caroline Tackett, Monica Scott and Natalie Blanton combined to score five goals in the opening 5:29, and the Patriots held an 8-2 lead at the half.

“We weren’t able to do a lot of our warm-up exercises,” said Scott, who led the team with three goals. “So at first we were a little nervous to go out there ... But we were ready to go, ready to win.”

The only two lacrosse-playing schools in the district split their two meetings in the regular season. The first game started similarly to this one before Glass rallied to win, so the Patriots were wary as the Hilltoppers slashed the deficit to 10-7 on an Abbey Wilson goal with 7:13 remaining.

But Ally Doane netted a goal to widen the margin, and junior goalkeeper Laura Jesse — playing her first season of lacrosse — made several key stops down the stretch.

“First year picking up a stick,” Jesse said. “Love it.”

The boys were loving this meeting more than their first outing against Glass, an overtime loss marred by extracurricular activity.

“There was a fight,” PH attacker Ben Quinn said. “Our goalie was kicked out in the third quarter, so we didn’t have a goalie.”

Both teams kept their cool this time in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Kyle Smith and Drew Anderson scored four goals apiece and Andrew Burton added three as the Patriots never trailed.

“It’s a pretty good rivalry,” Anderson said. “Last year we split games with them. We lost to them at their place in a close game, and we beat them at our place. It went the same way this year. Today was kind of the rubber match, and we did what we needed to do. There’s definitely a little animosity between us.”

Quinn added two goals for PH. Steven Webb and Robert Lambeth scored two goals apiece to lead the Hilltoppers. PH defensemen Dave Pero and Thomas Rakes helped hold down the top scoring threats for Glass.

“I thought the guys did a really good job of sticking to the game plan,” PH coach Josh Wilkinson said. “We told the guys the last few days, just play the game. Just play lacrosse. If you play lacrosse, at the end of the game, you go home happy.

“That’s what the guys did tonight. They played well, they played smart. They played together, which was nice.”

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