The Rockbridge County High School boys lacrosse team lost its first two games of the season, falling 22-5 at Western Albemarle before dropping a hard-fought 8-6 decision at home to Albemarle.
On Tuesday of last week, the Wildcats lost on the road to a Western Albemarle squad that reached the Class 4 state semifinals last year.
John Brooke tallied one goal and two assists for RC. Grayden Brown and Jayden Layman each notched one goal and one assist for the Wildcats, while Andrew Kelly and Quincy Speers also scored. Ashtin Taylor and Chase Pooley each played a half in goal, making six saves apiece.
“The message to the team throughout the Western game and afterwards was, ‘how do we let something like that define us?’” RC head coach Davey Jones said. “They exposed a lot of the stuff that weneed to work on.”
Western improved to 2-0 on Saturday with a 7-6 road win over E.C. Glass.
The Wildcats made tremendous strides between their first and second games of the season, losing an 8-6 nail-biter against the Patriots in RC’s home opener on Friday. Albemarle had defeated RC 13-5 early last season.
Brown paced the ’Cats’ offense with a hat trick, and Parker Flint notched one goal and two assists. Kelly won 14-of-18 faceoffs and also scored a goal, and Layman posted one marker.
Pooley played the full game between the pipes, recording an impressive 16 saves. The junior goalie also helped RC improve its clearing percentage, which jumped from 25 percent against Western to over 60 percent in the Albemarle game.
“Not only did he have a big game in goal with 16 saves – in addition to that, he did a really nice job in starting the clear for us,” Jones said of Pooley.
The Wildcats still have some things to work on as the season gets into full swing – for one, they hurt their own cause with nine penalties in Friday’s contest – but RC’s first-year head coach believes that his team is headed in the right direction.
“In general, I’m super proud of the guys for how they responded, going from Western Albemarle to Albemarle,” Jones said. “We’re going to be looking to build on this as we get into conference play.”
The Wildcats look to improve on last year’s 6-8 record, when they advanced to the Region 4D tournament before suffering an 8-7 loss to Cave Spring in the quarterfinals. From last year’s team, RC graduated four seniors, including Sawyer Hattersley, now a defender on the men’s lacrosse team for Division III school Berry College in Georgia. However, the Wildcats have a strong core group with plenty of experience, led by seven seniors.
RC is scheduled to play host to Christiansburg tonight, Wednesday, with the varsity game only at 6 p.m. The Wildcats will then have a two-week break in competition before returning to action at Franklin County on Friday, April 11, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m., with the varsity game scheduled to follow at 7:15.
ABOVE, RC junior attackman Grayden Brown fires a shot to score his first of three goals of the game while junior teammate Andrew Kelly (10) watches during the Wildcats’ 8-6 home loss to Albemarle. Kelly scored one goal and won 14-of-18 faceoffs. AT LEFT, Wildcat junior defender Caleb Robinson and an Albemarle player battle for position in front of RC junior goalie Chase Pooley, who made 16 saves. (Stephanie Mikels Blevins photos)
