Submitted by Langley Lacrosse
June 12, 2010 — The Langley Saxons seized the 2010 Virginia boys’ lacrosse state title in convincing fashion on Saturday with a 12-5 masterpiece against the Loudoun Valley Vikings at Westfield High School. This latest lacrosse scalp gives Coach Earl Brewer’s boys a second crown to go with the championship earned in last year’s 4-3 overtime thriller against the Chantilly Chargers.
Langley senior Joey Byrne lugged the richest scoring haul of the night bagging four goals and an assist. Sophomore goalie Andrew Spivey at the other end produced 14 saves that perfectly complemented the hardy rearguard barrier that was his defensive corps throughout the night. And all players in between sporting Saxon colors fulfilled requirements of a champion’s role when it really mattered in the showpiece finale.
The colors in fact nearly all black for the occasion — somewhat oddly designated the visiting team for the final, the 2009 champs were precluded from using their home white uniform — the darkly-clad Saxons did about everything short of conducting a pre-match Haka ceremony to overwhelm their Viking foe.
Seven teammates joined West Point cadet-to-be Byrne in the Langley scoring column — attackman Sean Ahearn supplied two for the night while attackers Ethan Bailey, Jack Lundeen and Jack Sandusky, middies Bryan Clubb and Luke Salzer, and defender Robbie Bennett provided a goal a piece.
The Vikings got single goals from middies Chris Daddio and Denis Radcliffe, attackers Chris Rabung and Dylan Zook, and defender Derek Zook. Senior Alex Sharrer guarded the Loudoun Valley net, was credited with eight saves and, like his Saxon counterpart, had one very busy night in front of the cage.
Langley trumped latest game form of both teams in pursuit of the victory. By any measure, the win was comprehensive beyond what could have been forecast considering each side’s track record during earlier rounds of the state playoffs, or for that matter the overtime defeat the Vikings dealt the Saxons in an early season tournament this past March at West Springfield.
Langley had barely survived Salem in overtime at home in the quarterfinal round, followed by a more positive yet very workmanlike, 7-5 outing against W.T. Woodson to reach the title game. Loudoun Valley, meanwhile, could boast a 7-5 away win against West Albemarle to go with a tidy, 18-8 conquest of Brooke Point midweek to claim its spot in the final.
The Saxons forged a 3-0 lead barely halfway into the first period, went into the halftime break up 5-1, and started the final quarter with a 7-3 advantage and a pair of Vikings serving penalty time with all but one second remaining on their respective terms. Langley was first to score in each quarter and let loose a four-goal barrage in the final quarter to put matters well beyond Loudoun Valley’s reach.
The Vikings required nearly 39 minutes of game time to accumulate four goals in the contest. The Saxons canceled out that scoring output in a matter of seven minutes with a quartet of well-taken, fourth-quarter strikes that tightened their grip on the win and state title honors. Byrne’s fourth of the game — an unassisted effort — followed by an eight-yard blast from Clubb off of an assist from Byrne, and Ahearn’s second of the night set up by a decisive pass from junior middie Troy Scharfen after a lengthy team possession, fattened the margin for Langley and drained a large portion of time remaining from the game clock. Then, with less than a minute left in the proceedings and Loudoun Valley with a man advantage, Bennett collected a set-up pass from Clubb and delivered a shorthanded goal giving the senior defender’s side an even dozen for the night’s work.
While the Vikings on Saturday night had their better moments and netted five goals in all, these were little more than occasional pauses punctuating the nearly continuous Saxon mantra for the evening — deny, check, steal, pass, possess and score. Upon securing a multiple-goal lead in the opening period, Langley had its opponent firmly framed in the rear view mirror, and as matters progressed, found less need to heed that very common warning that objects in view may be closer than they appear.
The Saxons enjoyed a dream first period getting a trio of unanswered goals and shutting out Loudoun Valley. Bailey delivered the game’s first goal not quite two minutes from the opening whistle, with the VMI-bound senior depositing from just outside the crease at the end of a rapid sequence of precise passes that included an assisting contribution from Scharfen.
Langley continued the early-game pressure on offense, with senior middies Jack Curry and Ryan Miller launching shots that went narrowly wide of Sharrer’s cage, although Spivey was forced into blocking a Viking bid from close range, and Curry was needed to track down defender Garrett Swankowski when the Loudoun Valley senior initiated a threatening attack that the speedy Saxon thwarted with a timely strip of the longpoleman’s possession.
Salzer doubled the lead at the midpoint of the opening period when the freshman made the most of a cross-crease pass from Bailey that set up the scorer well for a close-in strike past Sharrer. Sandusky then made it three immediately from the ensuing face-off — again, a crease-side finish, this time with Byrne winning the re-start at the center spot and feeding Bailey, who earned his second assist in less than ten seconds of game time by moving the ball smartly to the Langley junior for the score.
Sandusky, Lundeen then Miller again each took a crack at Sharrer’s goal but these went wide of or over the net. Daddio started to get some better looks at goal late in the first period but the Viking senior, heading to Syracuse this Fall, saw Spivey keep out his most promising chance from eight yards. Loudoun Valley’s Nick Anderson then mounted a long-pole charge into attack but the senior defender could not outrun Salzer, who managed to back-check Anderson’s stick for a timely turnover just past the midfield line. Bailey then deployed a swim move to slip by his opposing marker and venture in alone against Sharrer in the final minute of the quarter only to see his shot veer narrowly off-target.
Ahearn got Langley’s fourth of the game early in the second quarter, with an assist to Lundeen, this just after Spivey came up with a fine point-blank save on a close-in shot from Viking attackman Brandon Bunce. Loudoun Valley attackers persisted, getting off a rifled shot that banged off the crossbar before Daddio finally got their breakthrough, drilling in an eight-yarder past Spivey to reduce the deficit to three goals just three minutes into the second period.
But Byrne responded only two minutes later with a left-hand shot from short range after dodging his way through the Vikings defenses, getting his first for the night and the fifth for the Saxons. Langley defender Thomas Robinson then made something out of a half-chance presented to him when he moved into attack out of a scrum at midfield. The Loyola-bound, All-Met senior charged in, briefly lost control of the ball as we was setting to shoot, then regained enough composure to dispatch toward net but not past Sharrer. Spivey was then forced into a stellar double save at the other end, with the second coming at point-blank range, to preserve the four-goal lead for his Saxons.
Loudoun Valley was thrown a life-line late in the first half when Robinson was cited for a slash giving the Vikings a man advantage for a minute. The advantage did not yield a goal despite several shots unleashed in Spivey’s direction, the first snared by the Langley netminder followed by several outside attempts that sailed wide of goal.
Teams alternated goals in a third period that was scoreless until its midpoint. Prior to that, both goalies coped well with threatening attacks that required tricky saves. Dylan Zook next used a behind-the-back attempt to sneak one by Spivey from four yards out but the senior’s effort swerved just wide of goal. The Saxons then enjoyed a man advantage on two occasions but went scoreless during each, with one volley hitting the goal frame and a menacing bounce-shot from close range getting corralled by Sharrer.
Langley saw its goal margin expand to a commanding five when Lundeen provided a well-timed cut toward net to receive a set-up pass from Clubb and snap in from four yards. The Vikings pulled one back soon after, coming directly from a re-start that had a Saxon in possession at midfield but promptly getting his pocket picked from behind. Rabung delivered the assisting pass for attacker Zook to complete the opportunistic, fast break scoring play.
But back again came Langley, this time with Byrne bulling his way in for the score from close range to record his second of the contest. The Saxon middie attracted a hard check while in his shooting motion that altered delivery in a way that appeared to put Sharrer in weaker position for blocking the shot.
The Loudoun Valley goalie got the better of Miller about a minute later when the middie triggered a left-hand shot headed for an open corner of the net, which Sharrer somehow managed to cover with his upper body through quick adjustment to the incoming threat. The Viking keeper saved again about a minute later, just before his side was awarded a 60-second extra-man opportunity with a little over a minute remaining in the third period. Rabung flicked in high over Spivey from four yards to convert the man-advantage goal after Daddio had furnished a vital assisting pass.
On the sinking side of a 7-3 score-line with the fourth quarter nearing, Loudoun Valley saw its prospects, already fairly fragile, weaken considerably in the last second of the third period when a pair of flags signaled two separate infractions leading to a two-man advantage for Langley. Byrne made the best use of an assist from Saxon sophomore attacker Mikey Adams, at the end of a methodical build-up in the advantage, to fire in for his third of the game and the 8-3 lead for Langley less than 20 seconds into the final frame.
Derek Zook then struck back for his Vikings when the senior defender recognized an unsettled situation allowing him to advance for the unassisted goal from 10 yards. But the Saxons pounced with four and maintained their deadbolt defense — Robinson and Bennett joining senior Kas Semancik and juniors Brenden Dwyer and Connor Curry — to seal the result.
Spivey still had work to do during the late stretch, making a fine save on Bunce when the junior was left unmarked just outside the goal crease, then denying another chance for Swankowski after the All-Met defender generated a nice break from his defensive zone that yielded a scoring bid but no goal. Loudoun Valley did get a fifth goal, an unassisted strike from Radcliffe with less than two seconds remaining in the game. This a consolation for the Viking sophomore that brought reply from Langley that only a state champion can offer when the blare of the final horn signifies the season-long race has finally been won.
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