WAHS steamrolls Forest Park

It was hard to tell which was more impressive about the Western Albemarle boys lacrosse team in its state quarterfinal game Saturday night — its offensive display or its stifling defense.
The Warriors used a well-balanced attack to break to an early lead and the defense did the rest as they rolled to a 14-2 victory over Forest Park to earn a spot in the state semifinals next week.
Western Albemarle was especially dominant on faceoffs, and thus prevented the Bruins from maintaining possession, which led to the Warriors out-shooting the visitors 29-11.
“We knew they had great wing play and we knew we had to ride the guys out in order for the faceoff guys to have a chance. So everything really centered on the faceoffs tonight,” said Western Albemarle coach Hunter Price. “The offense did a great job moving the ball — it wasn’t as crisp as we want it, but we got the goals and we made them count.”
The Warriors took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Max Pfeifer, the school’s career leading scorer. But Forest Park quickly answered as Tyler McCullough scored to even the game. It took less than 30 seconds for Western to score again, as Mack Schwoebel took it in to take the lead.
The Warriors got another goal from Schwoebel and Charles Sipe to start a 6-0 run. Quin Sweeney, Pfeifer and Matt Galvin also scored to highlight that spurt before Forest Park’s Dane Richards notched a goal to make it 7-2.
Sweeney, who finished with five goals to pace Western, put a nifty shot over a defender and in the back of the net to extend the lead. The Warriors held an 11-2 advantage by halftime, and the rout was on.
“Without [Charles Sipe and Brenning Greenfield] we don’t possess the ball — and that was key in this game,” said Sweeney.
Pfeifer, who is headed to Notre Dame, did a fantastic job finding the open man and finished with a team-high five assists. Goalkeeper Cody Peters didn’t allow the Bruins to score after halftime and recorded eight saves.
Even with the big halftime lead, the Warriors didn’t want to lose their intensity in the second half.
“[Albemarle] went on a similar run and Forest Park was able to come back and withstand that and make a game of it,” Price said. “We knew that Forest Park had that firepower, so we weren’t comfortable with the lead we had. We knew if we kept doing the things that we needed to do and not get complacent we would be fine.”
Western Albemarle will face the winner of the Chantilly/Patrick Henry game on Tuesday at Westfield High School.