St. Anne’s holds on to win VIS crown

RICHMOND — Up by just one goal with just a minute and a half to play, it’d seemed only fitting that many of St. Anne’s-Belfield’s marquee players came up with big plays.

A steal by Owen Van Arsdale, a ground ball by Howie Long Jr., and a clutch save by goalkeeper Austin Geisler — that’s what the Saints got in the game’s last 90 seconds, as they held off a scrappy St. Stephen’s-St. Agnes team, 9-8.

“Obviously, that’s the kind of game you want in the championship,” said St. Anne’s coach Doug Tarring. “When you have two of the top teams in the state, that’s what people want to see, but you want to be on the right end of the score, and we’re very glad to be champions, to say the least.”

In the early going, it looked like St. Anne’s was going to cruise to an easy victory, outplaying St. Stephen’s all over the field to take a 6-1 lead at the beginning of the second quarter.

“Getting out 6-1 early, we were thinking maybe we’re just going to get up on them and there will be nothing they can do about it,” Van Arsdale said. “But they fought back.”

St. Stephen’s came to life midway through the second quarter and into the third, cutting the deficit to one goal.

“We played a lot of emotional minutes in this tournament,” Tarring said. “When you get a big lead like that, sometimes things drop off a little bit. To [St. Stephen’s] credit, they just stayed in the game.”

Goals from Andrew Crockett and Van Arsdale inflated STAB’s lead to three with five minutes to play. But just as it had earlier in the game, St. Stephen’s came back with a surge, scoring a pair of goals to make it a one-score game with four minutes remaining.

Just a sophomore, Crockett scored four goals and tallied an assist.

“[Friday] I didn’t feel like I played up to my potential,” Crockett said. “I couldn’t sleep. I was just so pumped up and ready to play. Owen, he did his thing, and I did mine.”

Van Arsdale, a junior, assisted three of Crockett’s goals and chipped in a pair of scores himself to take home the tournament’s Most Valuable Player trophy.

As was the case in last year’s tournament, Geisler saved his best play for last, stopping the game’s top scorer, Alex Clay, in the waning moments of the game.

“The defense played great and I was able to stop the shots I needed to,” Geisler said. “The defense kept everything outside and helped me see the ball. They kept the lanes clear. They really won this game.”

Geisler finished with 13 saves.

STAB loses five seniors to graduation, including the UVa-bound Long on defense, but the elder statesmen of the team are going out happy.

“I’m at a loss for words for how this feels,” Long said. “It feels better than any athletic accomplishment I’ve ever had.”

Saints capture VIS girls lacrosse title

In Alexandria, in her 22 years at St. Anne’s-Belfield, girls lacrosse coach Mary Blake has done just about everything, but had arguably her best week at the helm of the Saints’ program.

After thumping Norfolk Collegiate by 14 goals on Friday, Blake reached a pair of milestones by collecting her 300th career victory and her first VIS Division 2 championship as the Saints topped Highland, 15-11.

“Getting to 300 was pretty exciting,” Blake said. “But getting that state championship was a lot more exciting. We have a lot coming back, so I knew 300 would come.”

Although timid before the opening faceoff, the Saints made the most of their first appearance in the tournament championship, which is in just its fourth year of existence.

“It was kind of funny,” Blake said. “I was more nervous than I can remember in all my years coaching, for some reason. It was just crazy. And one of my seniors was as quiet as I was and I thought, ‘Oh my heavens, they’re as nervous as I am.’ But once they got out there and start running around it got better.”

Highland jumped out to a 2-0 start, but the Saints caught up quickly before taking the lead for good, entering the second half up 11-6.

“We were able to hold possessions,” Blake said. “We looked for good shots and kind of controlled the game after that point.”

Sophomore Addi Bolin, who transferred from Covenant in January, led the way for STAB on offense, scoring six of her team’s 11 goals.

The Saints graduate seven seniors, but Blake is excited about having much of a young squad coming back together next year.

“We were experienced this year but I think we’ll be experienced next year as well,” Blake said. “I’ve got a great core of sophomores and juniors coming back, so we’ve got a nice mixture coming back next year.”