Lynn leads Red charge in adult lacrosse championship

Former Western Albemarle attacker Kellen Lynn led the Red team to the Charlottesville Adult Summer Lacrosse League championship on Tuesday night at St. Anne’s-Belfield.

The 2005 graduate and current member of the Westminster College lacrosse team scored six goals as Red defeated Black 15-12.

“The greatest thing about our summer league team is that we really play together,” Lynn said. “There’s a commitment to move and make that next pass. Luckily tonight was my night to be open and finish.”

The Black team can thank UVa club goalie Jeb Bryan for keeping the game as close it was. Red would have run away with the game were it not for Bryan’s 21 saves.

“I was just trying to get in front of the ball,” Bryan said. “I got my body in front, which I had to do. They had some firepower but I tried my best and put my team in a position to win.”

While the first half was back and forth, Red took control of the game in the second half, winning the majority of the fights for possession.

The Black goalie stymied the Red attack for a 10-minute period in the third quarter, making eight saves.

“It’s real tiring when you got a bunch of shots in a row like that,” Bryan said. “I’m not going anywhere, but I’m all out of breath, so it’s nice to get a break from that eventually.”

Down by three with ten minutes to play in the fourth quarter, the Black team put together a three-goal stretch in four minutes to make it a one goal game.

The Black offense was led by Steven Murray. Murray, who plays for Loyola College, scored four goals and assisted on three others.

With the game tightening up in the final minutes, Black was unable to hit the net in their final possessions, and Lynn and Nate Rullman (formerly of Western Albemarle) gave their team the insurance they needed to claim victory.

“We’ve got some hot sticks out there,” Lynn said. “We’ve got guys like Max Pfeifer, who’s heading to Notre Dame, and Nate Rullman, a graduate from Maryland who can score, and then myself. I like to think I can score too sometimes.”

The Charlottesville Adult Summer Lacrosse League is for players 15 and older. The majority of the rosters consist of current and former players from local high schools.

“It’s fantastic that we’ve got kids from all over the place in the area.” Lynn said. “You’ve got kids from here going around to other places and coming back in the summer and bringing the game with them.  It’s a growing sport in the city.”

Bryan was just happy to see it a close game.

“That’s always nice in the last game,” Bryan said. “They beat us twice pretty bad before and it was nice to come out and give everyone a pretty good show.”