In a hard-fought home opener, the Rockbridge County High School boys lacrosse team suffered an 8-5 loss to Western Albemarle on Tuesday night in Lexington.
The Wildcats (1-1) led 5-4 early in the fourth quarter, but Western (1-2) had a strong finish, tying the game with 7:32 left and then scoring three more goals. It was much more competitive than last year’s game between the two schools, when the Warriors cruised to a 22-5 win in Crozet.
Western’s Grey Clifford opened the scoring with a goal just over two minutes into the game. After strong defense by both teams, Pat Looney forced a turnover and then ran in for a goal to tie the game at 1-1 with 1:06 left in the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Grayden Brown scored on an assist from Andrew Kelly to give RC a 2-1 lead, and Looney then scored to make it 3-1. Looney put in his third goal with 6:12 left in the first half, but the Warriors responded with two goals to cut the lead to 4-3 with just over two minutes left in the first half.
Most of the third quarter was scoreless until Clifford found the net at the end of it to the game 4-4.
In the fourth quarter, RC’s Parker Flint scored a little under 10 minutes in to give his team a 5-4 lead. Western answered back, though, as Silas Terrill’s goal tied it, and Terrill scored three of the Warriors’ four goals in the quarter.
Senior Chase Pooley had a strong game in goal for the Wildcats, making 20 saves. Kelly won four faceoffs for RC.
The Wildcats will return to action at Albemarle next Wednesday, April 1, starting with the junior varsity game at 5:30 p.m.
For the story and photos from Tuesday’s game, please see our April 1 newspaper. The story on the Wildcats’ 9-7 comeback win in the season opener last Tuesday at Fluvanna County will be in this Wednesday’s newspaper.
