Eagles blow past Barons to reach VIC final

With the creases transformed into mud pits by game’s end, Covenant dominated Blue Ridge Tuesday in the Virginia Independent Conference tournament semifinals, winning 17-4 on a rain-soaked field to move on to the title game.

Covenant took control of the game early on and never relented, outscoring Blue Ridge 4-0 in the first quarter, with two of the goals coming from junior Alex Kuehler. In all, seven Eagles would tally at least one goal on the day with Kuehler, seniors Luke Heinsohn and Andy Colberg and junior Eric Dixon tied for the team lead with three goals apiece.

“That’s the goal,” said Covenant coach Dave Breslin. “You always want to have a lot of guys scoring and today, after a little bit of a slow start, the offense really started to click. It was great that [our players] shared the wealth. We were crisp.”

The Barons cut the Eagles’ lead in half during the first part of the second quarter, but it was as close as they would get. The first goal came from the stick of senior Chris Norton, while junior Michael Carlini netted the second goal. Norton scored Blue Ridge’s only other two goals in the game, which came late in the third quarter.

“[Norton’s] a machine,” said Blue Ridge coach Andrew Sheppe. “He doesn’t ever come off the field. He plays right on the crease. He gets banged up every game. You can’t get the ball out of his stick. If we can feed him, good things happen. Some of our midfielders and some of our other attackmen are starting to realize he’s almost automatic if you can get him the ball in the crease.”

Starting at the 4:54 mark of the second quarter, Covenant rattled off eight straight goals to take a commanding 12-2 lead into the second part of the third quarter.

“I’m pleased with this win because I think Blue Ridge is a very good team,” Breslin said. “I think they did a great job. They really pushed us and we challenged our guys [by saying] ‘This is a game we need to have. We need to play well today in order to be successful,’ and that’s exactly what we had.”

Though the Eagles’ offense started clicking and was obviously a big part of the win, the defense stymied the Barons’ attack all game long, which was a focus of Covenant’s game plan.

“We’ve given up a lot of goals this season,” Breslin said. “We made it a goal for us today to make sure we limited them because they have a good offensive team…In order for us to be successful we knew we had to keep them, goal-wise, very low. Our midfielders did a good job playing defense as well.”

Breslin also credited senior goalie Phil Lindenbaum for playing a solid game protecting the net.

“In the last three weeks, he’s really started to come into his own, really playing very well,” Breslin said. “In order to be a successful team, you’ve got to have a championship goalie. You have to have a goalie that makes the saves he’s supposed to make and then also steals a few. That’s what he’s been doing for us for three weeks. He stole some nice ones again today. He’s the anchor — he’s the quarterback of our defense.”

In addition to Lindenbaum’s play, the Barons offense took poor quality shots, making it difficult to cut into Convenant’s leads. Otherwise, Sheppe was pleased with his team’s offensive execution.

“We played good, settled offense the whole game [but] we took bad shots for most of the game,’ Sheppe said. “In short bursts we focused enough to sneak it past the goalie. [Lindenbaum] got a couple good saves. I’d say poor shooting was most of our problem. We did get good looks and we ran good plays and we possessed it.”

Sheppe added, with some degree of shock, how clear it was that shooting was the difference in the game, citing the close faceoff battle and play of senior Max Ruehrmund.

“Wow I think they won the possession game, but not by a lot,” Sheppe said. “The score really tells the difference in shooting … Max Ruehrmund is our faceoff midfielder and we won more faces than we lost by a lot. I don’t have the numbers, but he might’ve been two-thirds or above on the faceoffs. … He’s the only Blue Ridge player on the field that looked dominant.”

With the victory, Covenant will play either Virginia Episcopal School or Roanoke Catholic on Saturday at noon.