Late heroics boost AHS

In the 14 previous games that Albemarle had played coming into Monday night, the Patriots had yet to trail at halftime, much less face any hardship.
Hosting Riverbend, the Patriots passed their first true test by tying the game with 10 minutes remaining before scoring in the last minute of play to pull out a hard fought 2-1 victory.
“We needed to have a game like this,” said Albemarle coach Scott Jackson. “I think it was a good wakeup call.”
The Patriots (15-0, 13-0 Commonwealth) were already pouring the shots on the Bears when defender Eric Bohn first tied the game on a free kick, but the goal brought an already aggressive attack to a boil.
“The momentum just shifted,” Bohn said. “All of a sudden, everything was going our way.”
Julian Lowe notched the game-winner when Riverbend goalkeeper Morgan Smith initially made a save on a shot from Ben Coffey. Smith popped the ball straight in the air, where Kyle Rose was able to get it to the junior forward for the go-ahead goal.
“Kyle hit it back and I just focused on it,” Lowe said. “I really wanted to score that goal. It was an amazing feeling. Just an amazing comeback.”
Albemarle beat the Bears (7-5-2, 6-4-2) with relative ease just this past Friday, but things were different this time around as Riverbend’s hard line trap defense consistently caught the Patriots offside, or forced long kicks straight into Smith’s hands.
Forward Ryan Zinkhan put Riverbend on the board first with a goal 23 minutes into the first half.
“They were physical with us at first but I thought we matched them a little bit,” said Riverbend coach Bob Stack. “Then when we got that goal things evened the game out for a while. In the second half [Albemarle] just came out fighting hard the whole time. It was a good match.”
Before Bohn and Lowe scored, the Albemarle had outshot Riverbend 17 to eight, but had nothing to show for it.
“We run that [trap] most of the time,” Stack said. “They found the holes on it on Friday, but we tightened it up and it definitely showed.”
In fact, the Patriots spent the majority of the game in the Bears’ defensive end, with Riverbend’s only scoring opportunities coming on a handful of fast breaks and odd cornerkicks.
At halftime Scott instructed his players to stay calm, and in the end that proved to be a major payoff.
“I told them to remain patient,” Scott said. “I told them to keep finding feet, play composed. We didn’t want them to rush things, to just kick the ball and hope for the best. They kept their heads about them, found their teammates feet and it worked out.”
Albemarle will try to stay unbeaten against Mountain View tonight at home in its regular season finale.
The Commonwealth District tournament begins next Monday.