|  | | Oakton
senior Ashley Kimener hustles toward the goal for one of her three
scores in the Cougars' 15-7 victory over Robinson in the AAA Northern
Region finale. | The
similarities between Oakton�??s girls�?? lacrosse team and Robinson�??s boys�??
lacrosse team�??winners in their respective AAA Northern Region
championship games Wednesday night at Oakton�??are uncanny.
Oakton�??s girls won Virginia�??s first official Class AA/AAA state lacrosse title last season. So, too, did Robinson�??s boys.
The Cougars did so after having lost in last season�??s regional final. Ditto for the Rams.
In
fact, no current player on Oakton�??s roster had ever claimed a regional
championship before Wednesday night. The same exact thing can be said
for the Robinson contingent.
And
both groups turned in nearly identical performances in their respective
regional finales. Oakton�??s girls defeated Robinson, 15-7, in the first
half of the championship doubleheader after jumping to a comfortable,
12-3 lead. Robinson�??s boys turned in a staggeringly similar, 15-8, win
over Westfield after also jumping�??you guessed it�??to a 12-3 lead.
And now, most importantly, both programs have their sights firmly set on repeating as state champions.
�??Nothing less will be good enough,�?� Robinson senior captain Matt Kugler said. �??Nothing less.�?�
| | | Robinson
senior Danny Fritz, who missed last year's playoffs with a broken
collar bone, contributed five goals and one assist in the Rams' 15-8
victory over Westfield in the AAA Northern Region title game. |
The
Cougars (16-1) used a diverse and lightening quick offensive attack to
put the Rams (11-6) back on their heels in the first game, getting
goals from seven different players along the way. Senior attack Victoria Cable led the charge with four goals, while senior midfielder Hillary Freund added three goals and four assists and junior midfielder Ashley Kimener totaled three goals and one assist.
�??I�??d love to take credit for this beauty, but I have no set game plan,�?� Oakton Coach Jean Counts said, laughing. �??I let them do their thing. It�??s pure entertainment to me to watch them just go boom �?� boom �?� boom.
�??I
believe so much in this team that if it didn�??t go this way then I would
think the world was off its axis or something. They really deserve it.
They work so hard and they play so well together. It�??s just the right
thing. It feels like the right thing.�?�
Robinson�??s
girls did not make it easy, though. The Rams mounted a spirited
second-half attack, scoring five the game�??s final eight goals to close
in on Oakton�??s big lead. Robinson senior midfielder Marnie Commins paced the Rams with three goals, while sophomores Tory Barron and Sarah Moody added two a piece.
�??We
talk about never quitting no matter what the score is, and if we didn�??t
have that attitude we never would have made it here in the first
place,�?� Robinson girls�?? Coach Alison Neun said. �??We
lost 12 people last year and our mentality coming into this season was
that we were going to learn the basics and focus on that the first half
of the year and then work on becoming a team the second half. And I
think we have.�?�
There
proved a parallel path to the boys�?? title game, as Robinson (17-2) rode
the strength of four first-half goals by senior attack Danny Fritz to secure an early lead on Westfield (13-5). Rams�?? junior attack Jonathan Kilbourn and sophomore attack Daniel McNulty totaled three goals each and Kugler added one goal and four assists.
But
it was Fritz, who missed last year�??s playoffs with a broken collar bone
and sat out the first several games this season with a broken finger,
was the story Wednesday night.
�??After
the injury I really realized that lacrosse is my passion and I just
wasn�??t putting enough effort into it,�?� said Fritz, who finished with
five goals and one assist. �??But being away from it for 11 months just
pumped me up to be back on the field every game. And I got a lot of
help from my team. They let me know I was still a big part of the team
when I was injured, and all of that support really helped.
�??I can�??t even express how good I�??m feeling right now.�?�
Westfield, led by Bulldog senior Adam Dahms
four goals, launched a vigorous comeback of its own, scoring four
consecutive fourth-quarter goals to cut Robinson�??s lead to 12-8. But
three more goals by the Rams put the game out of reach�??and turned the
focus to next week�??s state tournament.
�??We come out every game fighting hard, and tonight it just worked our way,�?� Kugler said. �??Westfield
is a great team, they�??re known for having a great defense. We�??re just
playing some great lacrosse right now. It means a lot considering we
haven�??t won a regional title since 2001. It feels good to feel that
void.
�??But now we�??ve got more work to do.�?�
They, of course, are not the only ones.
�??It
was amazing to win states sat year with it being the first official
one,�?� Cable said. �??And this year it is one of our huge goals to get
districts, region and states because we�??ve never done that all in one
year before. We�??re close, but we�??re not there yet.�?� |