Submitted by Langley Lacrosse:
June 11, 2011: The Langley Saxons made it three in a row on Saturday — the third VHSL boys lacrosse state title in as many years — consecutively from first-seed, second-second, and now third-seed Northern Regions state play-off berths. And on the thoroughness of the triumph that brings the latest state honors — a 17-8 conquest of Northern Region rival Chantilly Chargers at Westfield High School — the Saxons simply made it seem rather easy, like taking candy from a baby.
Not that the third-time state champs were content with coasting to the finish line with the resounding end result well in hand, or that the Chargers simply surrendered to their fate at the earliest signs of impending collapse. When Langley junior Josh Sibio chased down and dispossessed for turnover a hard-working Chantilly short-stick middie near the midfield line with the Saxons up by nine goals and only seven minutes remaining until the final horn, one might have thought the combatants had simply ignored the scoreboard for the entire evening. The intensity that remained at such a late stage of a tilted contest was something that a former Saxon middie-in-Chief no doubt would appreciate.
From the face-off circle to the goal crease, along the sidelines and at all points in between, Coach Earl Brewer’s squad shaped victory that defied most if not all expectations as to the size of the winning margin, and surely the swiftness of its arrival. Attacker Mike Adams delivered a phenomenal nine goals, making it 15 in the last two games alone and 67 in the 2011 campaign for the Langley junior. Strike partner Sean Ahearn, also a junior, provided a goal and five assists. Two middies — junior Hunter Bentz and sophomore Luke Salzer — added a pair of goals apiece to go with two from senior attacker Jack Sandusky and a solo strike from senior middie Davis Wagner.
Spencer Gorham’s tenacious appetite for winning center-spot re-starts, and his lively longpoles on the wing — seniors Clark Andersen and Brenden Dwyer, junior Chandler Suk, sophomore Robbie Byrne and freshman Hunter Yates — fueled the possession engine that drove a relentless Saxon offense throughout the night.
Junior Andrew Spivey worked the first three quarters of the game and was credited with six saves while senior Ryan Long guarded the net in the final quarter and made two saves. The Langley netminders conceded a string of solo strikes coming from eight different Chargers — senior attackman Kyle O’Connor and senior middies Kyle Louis, Craig Penman and Devon Westerman, junior attackers Luke Bowers and Daniel DeCenzo, and junior middies Nico Alcalde and Cole Fitzgerald.
Senior Eric Simmons and sophomore Tommie Fairbank split the cagework for Chantilly, with Simmons working the first half and making six saves while Fairbank saved once during his second-half tour of duty in net.
The Saxons raced to an early 5-0 lead and had their opponent looking up at a 6-1 score-line at the close of the first period, and 11-3 at half-time. A three-goal burst by Chantilly in the third period offered a hint of a comeback bid by the 2011 Northern Region Champs but not before Langley had added a pair earlier in the second half to trigger the running clock with a ten-goal lead. The Chargers never got closer than seven, though, as a fourth-quarter hat-trick by Adams and a chip-shot from close range by Wagner more than made up for a pair of late goals from Chantilly.
The Chargers (21-2) produced solid wins over two Northwest Region squads — at home against the Patrick Henry Roanoke Patriots (15-4) and at Westfield against the Albemarle Patriots (19-2) — to earn their spot in the state final. The Saxons (19-3) needed double-overtime to sneak past the Battlefield Bobcats (16-3) on the road in Haymarket followed by a come-from-behind win against the Annandale Atoms (16-4) at Westfield to claim the other slot in the championship game. The two finalists last faced each other in the Spring Break Invitational tournament at West Springfield in April, where they treated attendees to an 11-10 overtime thriller that went Langley’s way in a finely-balanced contest that many anticipated was the template for the showdown on Saturday.
But that was not to be. A roaring start by the Saxons, buttressed by a six-goal run beginning late in the first quarter right after the Chargers had scored their first goal of the game, put matters well beyond Chantilly’s reach by half-time.
Salzer rifled in an unassisted goal from about 15 yards for the 6-1 Langley lead less than two minutes after DeCenzo fought off a Saxon defender to fire in from six yards getting his Chargers on the scoreboard for the first time late in the opening period.
The Chargers came back the other way with shots from Bowers, Fitzgerald and Penman — the latter two coming during a man advantage situation for Chantilly — but none got by Spivey. Adams then supplied a man-up goal early in the second quarter with an assisting pass from Salzer setting up the strike from just outside the crease near the goal line.
Ahearn fought off his defensive marker to gain a good shooting position for the unassisted score from just outside the crease at the seven-minute mark of the second period for the 8-1 margin.
Then, with the Saxons riding their opponent hard in the Chantilly defensive area, Adams intercepted a hasty pass by Simmons well outside his crease. With the unguarded net beckoning from 25 yards, the Langley sharpshooter calmly lobbed the distance for his fourth of the game and the score that got Langley beyond the Chargers’ eventual goal count for the night.
But there was still more work to do with more than a half hour of game time remaining, and when Gorham met stiffer resistance during the ensuing face-off, it was Andersen who stuck his nose into the midfield scrum to secure control for his Saxons. After a quick time-out followed by sustained possession for Langley, Ahearn found Bentz making the run cutting in toward Simmons’ goal, with the assisting pass from attacker to middie leading to the three-yard strike into the net.
Simmons managed to keep out a Saxon outside shot shortly after but was not quick enough to recover the loose ball that fell nicely for Adams, who scooped and slipped in for the 11-1 Langley lead with less than four minutes remaining in the first half.
It took all of 40 seconds from the opening face-off for the Saxon goal fury to commence. Salzer pulled the trigger on the first of his two for the night with an assisting pass from Ahearn in the game’s first real action. A Chantilly penalty gave Langley the early one-minute man advantage and a two-goal lead when Ahearn set-up Bentz for the man-up goal less than three minutes into the game.
Simmons turned back shot attempts by Adams and Bentz but saw a third get by about a minute later. Saxon sophomore Brad Dotson took a clearing pass from Spivey at the midfield line and ventured into the attack with space and passing options. The longpole defender made the right choice when he fed the ball to Adams, who snapped in past Simmons with a left-hand shot from five yards for the 3-0 Langley lead.
Spivey was forced into some goal defending of his own when middie Jared Golden found some space to shoot twice but the Charger senior’s first effort from eight yards was snared by the Saxon goalie while his second sailed just wide of net. Spivey saved another Chantilly shot before the Saxons mounted another assault at the other end, this one leading to Adams receiving Sandusky’s cross-crease pass in the right spot to dispatch past Simmons from just outside the crease to expand the Langley goal count to four.
Sandusky added his one for the night at the end of a dash toward the Charger goalie, with the unassisted goal cranked in from a sharp angle. It was only then, after the five-goal offensive by the Saxons, that DeCenzo pulled one back for his Chargers with a little more than four minutes left in the first period.
Chantilly added a pair but not until late in the second frame with less than three minutes to half-time. Fitzgerald launched from about eight yards after a quick burst from behind the cage area to his shooting position to get the Chargers second goal. O’Connor added his one goal for the night about a minute later – a three-yarder with an assist from Westerman — for an 11-3 scoreline going into half-time.
Sandusky took but a minute of second-half time to unleash a five-yarder past Fairbank, who had replaced Simmons in the Chantilly net for the second half. The Chargers looked to have breached the Langley defenses when an attacking Charger went up against Spivey but a timely stick-check by a trailing Dwyer eliminated the scoring threat. The Saxons were in the hunt to harvest more goals with a man-up opportunity shortly after but Chantilly junior defender Drew Cormode provided the intercept and clearing run that depleted the man-advantage time for Langley. But the Saxons got yet another Adams goal when Ahearn spotted his strike partner near the crease, and a quick reverse turn by the prolific attackman played Fairbank out of position for the easy snap-in score.
Three goals by the Chargers in just 37 seconds — Louis from four yards, followed by and man-up goal by Westerman with an assist to Golden, then an unassisted strike from Penman — offered a little hope of a possible comeback, but Chantilly would get no closer than that seven-goal difference with the score 13-6.
Saxon junior middie Max Mullen looked to have slotted his effort past the Charger netminder but Fairbank managed to reach back at the right time to snare the shot just before the ball was crossing the plane of the frame into the cage. Both teams then had apparent scores late in the third quarter ruled out due to crease violations.
Adams added a pair early in the final quarter — with assists to Salzer and Langley junior middie Clay Rivers — before Wagner contributed his own near the midpoint of the fourth quarter. Adams had his shot blocked by Fairbank, who could only watch as the ball dropped to the goal scorer’s feet for the easy sweep into the net.
The Chargers had two more goals to show for their night’s efforts in a losing cause — late-game strikes by Bowers and Alcalde – on each side of the last for the Saxons, a man-advantage goal scored at the end of crisp passing between Sandusky and Ahearn to the nine-goal Adams for the finish. Long, who had come into the game to replace Spivey for the fourth quarter, made a pair of saves in the waning moments of the game that brought Langley its third championship season to a triumphant conclusion.
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