Warriors get past Knights

Through the first period of play, the Western Albemarle field hockey team outshot Charlottesville. In short corners, the Warriors also had a lopsided margin.
At the half, though, the score showed a nothing-nothing stalemate. Nearly three quarters of the way through the game, Western senior Darailia Evans finally broke through with a “garbage goal,” Warriors coach Mia Fields said.
The Warriors added another less than five minutes later on their way to a 2-0 victory at home.
“Our coach’s philosophy is just to shoot as many times as you can, and the more shots you get the more likely you are to score,” Evans said. “The first half, we kind of had a hard time getting those shots off quick enough.”
Particularly frustrating to Fields was Western’s inability to convert on penalty corners in the opening period. Not only did the Warriors fail to convert on six short corners in the first half, but they rarely mustered a clean shot.
“It’s not like we don’t practice ‘em,” Fields said. “I do feel that, even if they know what you’re gonna do, if you execute strongly, it should turn into a positive.”
On the Warriors’ eighth short corner, however, Evans finally put Western on the board. Off a penalty with 19 minutes remaining in the period, Western managed a shot off an insert by Becca Stoner. Charlottesville goalie Sam Miller made the kick save, but was unable to clear the ball from the circle. Stoner managed to recover and fire another shot, which was partially blocked, and the ball ended up on Evans’ stick at the goal line behind Miller. Evans smacked the shot to the boards at the 18:38 mark of the second period to put Western on the board and Stoner was credited with an assist.
While Fields may have referred to the goal as a garbage goal, she noted that such goals are often no accident.
“I think there’s people that they’re natural scorers, that they’re always at the right place at the right time,” Fields said. “You’re just cleaning up what other people are doing.”
As is so often the case in field hockey, the second goal quickly followed. Less than five minutes later, Western had a shot partially blocked inside the circle, and this time it was Rosalie Stoke who found herself at the right place at the right time. The ball landed on Stoke’s stick five yards from goal on the left side, and she slotted a shot to the far post to put the Warriors up two.
“We like to say that the first five minutes after a goal — whether on offense or defense — is the time that you’re the most vulnerable,” Evans said. “As soon as you get that first one off, you’ve gotta get another one in there quickly.”
“Once you hear the board, it’s just like a little inspiration,” Fields added. “You hear that board, you want to hear it again.”
The two goals by Western, though, came at the expense of a nerve-racking scoreless span for Fields.
Western wasted no time putting a flurry of shots on Charlottesville, tallying five shots in the first five minutes, forcing goalie Sam Miller to make two early saves.
The early shooting barrage included a zinger from just inside the circle by freshman Olivia Hajek, which pinged off the right post.
“You do get nervous,” Fields said. “Field hockey is a sport where somebody could come down one time and they could score a goal — it could be a bad bounce, it could be tons of things.”
Charlottesville managed to get a few solid chances its own after the opening five minutes. For the remainder of the half, the Warriors only outshot the Black Knights 5-4.
“We withheld for a long period of time,” Charlottesville coach Katie Santoski said. “Western’s a great team, and we were able to hold them. I am impressed by that.”
The Black Knights’ defensive game plan, Fields noted, had something to do with the duration of the 0-0 stalemate.
“They had a lot of people who played deeply, and even one of their defenders stayed sometimes behind the goalie,” Fields said. “That’s a good strategy to play if you have confidence in it.”
Though Santoski said she would have liked for her team to get off more shots than the nine the Black Knights mustered, she was proud of her team’s effort against the Warriors, particularly defensively.
“Last year I think when we played Western, we lost I think with a big score,” Santoski said. “This year, it’s only two. I am very impressed.”
Western Albemarle has less than a 24-hour turnaround as they take on Orange on the road at 5 p.m. today, while Charlottesville looks to rebound on the road against Liberty-Bealton tonight at 7:30 p.m.